In Memories, We Can't Trust
by Decipher Philosophy
Summary: Haru wanted to find forgiveness to let go of her anger and find hope by being one of the students in the virtual game only to become a risk when the virus effects her mind.
1. Not me anymore

In Memories, We can't trust

Chapter 1: Not me anymore

"It's too risky." Togami said with his arms crossed.

"We can't rely on Chiaki to do the job." Haru said firmly with her arms crossed. "One of us have to go in there to be a mediator, and Naegi doesn't have what it takes to stop a fight."

"You're not doing this."

"I can and I will."

"No."

"Guys." Naegi tried to break their tension.

"I agree with Haru-chan." Kirigiri said. "The program is a risk, and Chiaki can do so much, so we will need an inside person to mediate any problems out of our control. But are you truly sure about this Haru-chan?"

"Yes."

"Then I will not support this program." Togami said.

"Togami, it's not like anything will go wrong! If there is, then we got Fujisaki to fix that."

"But he will be here in Japan while you will be on that island. What if it's too late to fix anything?" The man looked away.

"Togami..." She pulled on his sleeve to make him face her but he refused. She touches his cheek making him face her, but his eyes were stubbornly looking away. It doesn't stop her from placing a sweet intimate kiss on his lips before walking away. "Let's go to the island."

Haru was certain of herself that what she was doing was right. She knew the other guys who fell to despair. They were only one grade above them but since it was a dorm, there wasn't a lack of socializing at all.

She didn't have all her memories since the incident, but she was certain that as she laid down into that pod that if anything went wrong, she would do her best to fix it. She took a quick look at her engagement ring before she straightened her body.

She closed her eyes and then after a while she saw herself standing in front of a door. She opened it to see that she was the first to enter the classroom.

She felt a sense of fear when she remembered the bloody classroom that Izuru had caused. She took a couple of deep breathes before taking a seat on a desk.

Soon, Komaeda was the first to show up. "Oh, hello." He closed the door behind him. "Are you a new student here too?"

"Yeah. The name's Haruna Takahashi. But you can call me Haru." She told him politely. It felt awkward for her.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Komaeda Nagito. While we're at it, we should also introduce our talents. But mine is kinda lousy."

"Lousy? But if Hope peak's academy wants you than it can't be that bad."

"I guess. Then my talent is Super Duper High School Level Good Luck."

"Good luck?" Haru gave herself credit for her acting skills. "You must be very fortunate at winning the lottery then."

Komaeda smiled with mirth. "That's funny. I got into this school through a lottery."

Then the door opened to reveal a redhead with a camera. "Did you two enroll in here too?"

"It looks like it." Komaeda responded with a friendly smile.

"Oh." The redhead looked away and waited at the side nervously. Soon after, each and every other student was entering with a confused expression. The last one being Hinata.

Haru was almost surprised by his appearance. Compared to the gloomy one, this one was a lot more...normal. Sort of.

The soccer player thought about her situation again. She remembered everything that each of these people did. She was horrified and disgusted, but that was why she was here. To change them.

She looked at Chiaki as everyone else began to panic and question why all of this was happening. The program blankly glanced back at her.

"Do you have any idea of what we're doing here Haru-chan?"

"Hm?" Haru realized Komaeda was speaking to her.

"Ah, sorry. You were thinking."

"Oh no. It's okay. Besides we don't know anything, so why not wait until someone like the teacher comes in and explain."

"The teacher?" Sonia heard her.

"Yeah, we just enrolled. Someone's gotta come in an explain what's happening."

"That makes sense." Peko said. "So we have to wait."

"But for how long? I'm bored!" Saionji whined.

"Not for vewy long!" Someone said.

"What was that just now?" Twogami questioned.

"Hey fatso. Don't go making baby noises." Kuzuryuu told him.

"I don't feel like arguing about my body weight right now, but that voice wasn't coming from me."

Akane arched an eyebrow. "Huh? So, who was it?"

"Um, it was meee!" The noise came again.

"WHO IS IT? WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUU?!" Nidai exclaimed.

"Isn't it coming from behind that podium?" Chiaki pointed out.

"Bingo! It seems everyone's here, so wet's begin!" Everyone looked at the podium where a white and pink bunny appeared.

"What the fuck?!" Haru did not expect the teacher to look like that. It just bought bad memories of stuff animals. She should've known better leaving the program to Naegi and Chihiro.

"No bad langwuage pwease!"

"What is that thing?" Sonia questioned.

"Um… I think it's a stuffed doll." Koizumi responded.

"Thaaat's wight. I'm a stuffed doll. I'm made of felt. My name is 'Magical Girl Miwacle Usami', but you can just call me Usami! I'm your teacher, everyone. Pweased to meet you!"

"You have to be fuckin' kidding me!" Haru stood up. "I get that Hope Peak's a weird ass school but this is a little too much for a first day don't you think?!"

"Eeeeh?! I-I'm sworry!"

Everyone else was with her on this, but then Twogami changed the subject of why they were there. Usami explained that they were on the field trip and then had the walls fall down to reveal a beach.

Everyone freaked out. What made Haru freaked out was when Komaeda asked if they had to kill each other. That was not something she wanted to hear.

Hinata fainted before Usami explained about their ElectroID and the hope shards.

Understanding the objective everyone began to introduce each other. Haru looked at her ElectroID to see her file:

Haruna Takahashi

Height: 165 cm / Weight:54kg / Chest:98cm / Blood type: AB

Birthday: Oct. 19 (Libra)

Likes: Soccer & Any kind of noodles

Hates: Weak things & Green food

Title: Super High-school Level Soccer Player

Twogami then suggested that they searched the island.

"What about him?" Tsumiki asked about Hinata.

"Just leave him. He will eventually wake up, and then be told the details later."

"He appears to be pretty out cold." Komaeda said as he was poking the male at the cheek. "I'll watch over him while you guys search the island."

"Fine. Let's head out."

"Hey! Who made you boss?" Saionji questioned.

"I don't see you making any other ideas."

The girl sulked and then rudely showed her tongue.

Everyone headed out except Komaeda. Haru looked at where everyone was going, and felt unsure of who to follow or whether to stay.

She began choosing by remembering their files. After Junko's death, thirteen parts were taken from her body: Her hands, eyes, feet, ovaries, heart, brain, intestines, tongue, ears and face.

Souda and Gundam were going to the airport. Tsumiki and Mioda were going to the Rocketpunch market. Nidai, Koizumi, Kuzuryuu, Peko and Nanami went to the hotel. Hanamura and Sonia went to the restaurant. Akane and Saionji walked towards the farm. Twogami went towards Jabberwock park.

Souda fell into despair by his sensitive abusive past. He invented most of the executions rooms including a giant foosball table meant for her. The mechanic had taken Junko's right hand, and killed people and forced them to kill themselves.

Gundam fell into despair after his heavenly kings died. He had his breeding followers and animals try to kill earth's existence altogether. After Junko's death, he tried to preserve her ovaries in order to continue the line of despair.

Tsumiki was in love with Junko, so did anything she said. She replaced the vaccines with viruses within hospitals with others which led to many dying of fatal painful diseases. She was devastated by Junko's death that she took her heart and almost surgically switched hers.

Mioda had a fall out with her band for her creative difference that Junko must have told her that no one would ever appreciate. So the musician created music that brought her listeners into despair. She took Junko's intestines and used it as the strings of her guitar after using other people's intestines to perfect the strings to her use.

Koizumi didn't have the confidence in the first place about her abilities. Yet, she used her photographic abilities to create false pictures that led to suspicions between powerful people which eventually led to war. She took one of Junko's feet along with Hiyoko who had a malicious heart in the first place, and used her popularity for people to hear her despairing vicious words.

Kuzuryuu had fell into despair for not having the courage of being a yakuza leader, and Peko followed him loyally. They used their connections to cause wars within nations during the wars outside of it. They each took an eye from Junko in replace of their own in order to see despair together.

Sonia never truly wanted to be a princess and had a love for the darker side of things which Junko fed on to convince the teen to betray her country and leave it to ruins. She took Junko's brain in order to think in despair but hadn't been able to surgically have it before being put into the program.

The one Haru couldn't believe was Nidai. He inspired and trained athletes to their very best including Leon. The soccer player figured that he failed to train someone which brought him to despair as he couldn't accomplish Daisuke's dream. The guy used his talents as a coach to inspire the low class people to go against the higher classes. He took one of Junko's ear in order to hear despair.

Owari also took an ear by random. Junko played with her starving past to convince the girl to use her body to pull schemes on important people, and then ironically starved herself to feel despair.

Twogami wasn't Togami, and having a lack of an identity had the teen turn to despair. He used his skills in taking identities and destroying people all around the world bringing them to their own despair. After Junko's death, he took her face and sow it on to pretend to be her and continuing her reign.

Hanamura lost his mother to her illness, so he poisoned people including her parents. After Junko's death, he took her tongue, and then cooked family members to feed to their own to survive starvation as they were locked in cells.

She already talked with Komaeda and thought it was better to spread her horizons. It wasn't for the fact that the teen was secretly insane with the need for hope after Junko gave him his essential high for hope. Junko used his fortunes and luck against the world. After her death, he took her left hand in order to become the despair to create hope.

Hinata wasn't any better by the fact that he killed the student council. There wasn't much information on him after the despair incident unlike the others.

After making a quick decision, she chose to follow Hanamura and Sonia to the restaurant. There, she pretended to look around at the place.

"And who are you?" Hanamura asked.

The soccer player gave a nonchalant greeting. "The name's Haruna Takahashi, but you can call me Haru if ya want. Didn't we introduce ourselves back at the beach? You're Hanamura Teruteru right?"

"Ah yes, but it was really rushed. We can take our time here, no? Doesn't your first name mean 'springtime vegetable' and your last name mean 'good person' or 'high bridge'. Haruna Takahashi. It's a really lovely refreshing name like yourself." He gave her a lecherous look.

"Uh...sure." Haru knew she was being hit on but didn't exactly know how to respond at a situation like this. She wondered what Togami was thinking of this.

He was not happy. He was with Kirigiri and Naegi in the security room watching the screens. "This is a waste of time. She shouldn't be in there."

"This was Haru-chan's decision." Kirigiri told him. "She's aware of the dangers that may happen."

"And what would that be? To stop pesky fights between these simpletons? Maybe fights should happen to build some actual character into them."

"Hey," Naegi said lightly. "They shouldn't be fighting, Togami-kun. Our mission is to establish hope after all."

"I sympathize with your concern Togami-san," Kirigiri told the blonde. "But, again, this is what Haru-chan decided on."

"And why are you defending her?"

"...She confided in me on making this decision." She responded.

"Confided with you? There's more to this isn't there?" Togami felt even more concern.

"Hanamura killed Haru-chan's parents." Kirigiri paused for a moment for the two males to process that. "We mostly heard stories between Haru-chan and her therapist, but she did care for her parents. Among Hanamura's duties under Junko's influences, he poisoned Haru-chan's parents having their insides liquified."

"Liquified!" Naegi was shocked. "Then Haru-"

"It's not what you think Naegi-kun. Haru-chan needed to find forgiveness in order to move on from grieving."

"Why with you?" Togami questioned indignantly. "Why did she confide with you instead of me, her fiance."

Kirigiri responded, "Haru-chan told me that she does know that you love her, but you wouldn't understand because you still lacked compassion."

Togami was at a loss of words for a proper response to that, so asked, "Then how does she plan of having forgiveness. None of them knows what they've done, so it's pointless when none of them will acknowledge it. This whole program is pointless when they don't acknowledge the fact that they've slaughtered people. This isn't establishing hope. This is establishing ignorance from being brought to justice."

"That's not true Togami-san!" Naegi defended the program. "This program was meant for them to realize that hope isn't unavailable to them! That falling into despair isn't there only option!"

"That still doesn't answer my question!" Togami barked slamming his hands on the table as he stood up abruptly. His chair falling down with a loud bang.

Kirigiri responded, "Haru-chan needed to forgive herself for not being there for her parents. For preferring someone else than her flesh and blood. That's the real reason why she confided in me. We both lost people that we wished we knew better." She remembers the funeral and the present box. She looked at the screen. "Their time to pay for their crimes will come another day, but right now Haru-chan needs to be rehabilitated from her guilt as much as they do."

Haru went into the kitchen to have a quick snack of a chocolate bar to check out her senses to find them fully functional.

She wasn't sure if she could be herself, but then when she exited, she heard an interesting conversation, "That's right. It's terrible if it gets swollen by poison. That's why you must suck the poison out with your mouth as soon as possible."

"Poison. I see."

"Yes. If you don't suck it out right now, I'll die."

"We can't have that! Just tell where it is and I'll suck it out for you!"

"It's at the lower part. Do it quickly."

"Lower part understood!"

Haru kicked Hanamura across the room like a soccer ball. "What the fuck do you think you're doing you damn pervert?!"

"What's happening here?" Komaeda questioned with concern.

"This pervert was tryin' to use Sonia!"

"He wasn't using me!" Sonia declared. "He needed me to suck the poison out!"

"You're..." Haru calmed down and tried to find the right words. "You really didn't spent a lot of time with teenage boys did you?"

"No. My friends were all females. They're known as the four Sonias which is silly because they have their own names."

The soccer player sighed by the naivete, but she did feel invigorated. She realized that it's been so long since she kicked the crap out of somebody. It felt awesome!

"He appears to be alive." Komaeda said checking the unconscious Hanamura.

"He'll live." Haru told him and then faced Hinata. "Yo, the name's Haruna Takahashi. It's nice to meet you."

"Ha-Hajime Hinata." The boy responded nervously and then stared at her. That worried the girl because this was a pre-trial before using it on other people. So erasing their memories might not have worked for some of them.

"What? Somethin' on my face?"

"N-no! I'm surprised."

"She's not what you expect considering how cute she is right." Komaeda said. "She is 'Super duper high school level Soccer Player'. She won the FIFA world cup and the FIFA confederation cup three times in the row. Right Haru-chan?"

"It's nothing to get excited about." She tried to keep it modest.

"Hey, what happened?" Hanamura was waking up.

"Oh I kicked the flying crap out of you." Haru made it sound like she got him milk from the grocery store. "If you ever try to sexually harass Sonia again, there'll be a lot more of that but harder." She threatened with a sweet smile.

"I-I promise!"

"Good." She looked at the other three who looked frightened or intrigued by her. She realized she went a little too far. She had just spent the last year learning physical hand to hand combat and dealing with sadistic people questioned in the foundation that her heart hardened and face became a mask convention. "So Hinata, you need to know Sonia for a hope shard right?"

"Ri-right."

They greeted each other with Komaeda explaining. Hanamura was very cautious and polite with his words. Then Komaeda and Hinata left. The white hair male glanced back at her before leaving.

"Uhm..." Hanamura wasn't sure what to say.

"Just say that you're sorry Hanamura."

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't actually mean for her to do anything. I didn't really mean to." He seemed honest.

"Just don't do it again. You can be a pervert, just don't trick anyone into doing anything."

"I won't! I promise!"

Haru smiled at the honest face. "I believe you."

"Wow, Haru-chan! You're really scary." Sonia commented.

"Gotta be when you're the captain of a soccer team! They were really the worse at listening."

"It must've been really stressful for you."

"Yeah." She hesitated with that answer. "Well, not really. I just didn't know how to get along with them. My parents had me home tutored and play with professionals. I didn't get to play with kids my age until middle school."

"I understand. I was home tutored, too, and the four Sonias weren't really my friends. Everyone always treated me like royalty that I hope that now everyone would treat me as their equal from now on."

"Then that shouldn't be a problem now. We're friends right?" Haru gave a genuine smile. She felt proud of herself for being someone who could actually be friends with them.

"Really?! I can be your friend?! Your equal?"

"Don't get so excited about it. We all have to be friends to get off this island. Right Hanamura?"

"Uh, yes! Yes!"

Then the screen monitor turned on to show Usami telling them to go to the beach for a present.

"I wonder what type of gifts she has for us." Sonia said.

"Probably something lame." Haru responded, and then the three of them went to the beach where the others were.

Twogami had them say what they discovered and then like the jackass he was acting like, he withheld useful information. But it did get her to know who the others were before the whole despair predicament.

Sonia was kind with qualities of a leader. Hanamura was a pervert who was now afraid of her which was a minus for a second hope shard. She had to get it through nice means. Not fear and dominance.

Tanaka was a weirdo stuck in the dark ages. Souda was a punk. Saionji was a brat. Tsumiki lacked self-esteem. Koizumi acts like a girl who's considered a feminist but has sexist views. Pekoyama was cool and collected but showed to have a shyness when Hanamura mentioned the black thong.

Haru let him slide with that. It was only when he actually tried to do something physical would she butt in.

Interestingly, Kuzuryuu didn't comment on that. Must be keeping their connections a secret, but still acted like a rude bad boy shota. Owari had a selfish lazy one track mind. Nidai on the other hand was his loud and inspirational self with a thing for shitting. Ibuki played the hyperactive idiot, and Nanami was really aloof and sleepy which was a huge minus for her program, but this was a test drive before using it on others.

After hitting Hanamura, she felt like this she could do this. But then there was this small ache in her head.

Then Usami appeared to give them their gifts. As Haru predicted, it was a lame Usami keychain which everyone threw to the ground including her. Then the second gift was a welcoming party, and swimsuits to swim.

"Aren't you going to swim Haru-chan?" Sonia asked her.

"Yeah." Then the ache got bigger like needles being stuck into her brain. "Actually no. My head hurts."

"Oh dear. Do you need to rest?"

"No. I'm fine. False alarm. Let's get into our swimsuits."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! I'm an athlete! I need to move!"

"Alright. If you say so."

They went with the others to the changing room and then got on the beach. Haru was so ready to swim but then her head ached harder like someone just banged her with a hammer.

"Haru-chan?! Are you alright?" Sonia asked. "Maybe it was a mistake."

"No. I'll just sit here." Haru sat on the wet sand feeling the cool water rushing in. The white dissolved oxygen fizzling on the shore beneath her.

"Then I'll sit next to you."

"Don't! Have fun! I'll join when my headache all gone."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Tsumiki would agree that I'd be fine!"

"Huh?!" The nurse was shocked to hear her name.

"Go have fun." Haru told the princess earnestly.

"...Okay. Just call me if anything's wrong!" She hesitantly left to play in the ocean.

Haru looked around to see Tanaka building a sand castle with his dark lords. Souda and Ibuki were just splashing water at each other. Hanamura was rubbing all over Nidai's hard rock muscles. Komaeda was trying to get along and play with a bashful Tsumiki. Pekoyama was swimming like a pro which made her jealous. She wondered why her head was aching.

It kept getting harder and harder like a rhino was trampling on her. She tried to massage it and pull her hair but the pain wouldn't stop.

Outside, alarms went off.

"What's happening?" Togami questioned when Haru's screen of her body's screen was red.

"Her brain is being tampered. The system has been breached by a virus." Kirigiri responded.

"What?! Ho-How?!" Naegi questioned.

"...Kamukura." Kirigiri typed down on the keyboard to show security footage. She guessed the appropriate time to plant a virus and then freeze framed it. "There." She stopped at the footage of Kamukura entering the room.

"I don't see anything wrong."

"The person escorting him in. She's not the one we assigned him with."

"But there's no footage of anything going wrong! Our security guards would've noticed!" Naegi pointed out.

"The blind spot." Togami responded indignantly while he was on the phone. "He used the cameras blind spot to take out the person escorting him and hide him, and then snuck into the controls room to plant the virus."

"But none of our people saw him come in."

"Think Naegi! He's a test subject who has every talent there is! We need Fujisaki immediately!" He turned away to talk to his phone.

"Togami-kun is right. We didn't take better precaution. Izuru Kamukura is a mystery to us, but if he has every talent there is, he must have thought of more than a thousand and one steps in all this. He must have went back to the school to create a virus that could override Fujisaki's own, and then let himself become one of the first test subjects in order to implant it."

"...Why? Why did he do this?"

"So we could fail. So despair could win."

"THEY WILL DIE IF YOU DON'T BRING HIM HERE! DAMMIT!" Togami threw his phone to the wall which broke into pieces. The man tried to compose himself. "We can't get Fujisaki. The damn chairman thinks the mission he put Fujisaki in is more important than saving Haru's life."

"Then you need to make a choice Togami-kun. You are her fiance'. If my suspicions are correct, the virus would delete those who are a threat. Chiaki is a program which might make her defenseless to control, but Haru-chan isn't. Not unless we erase her memories. Once the virus acknowledges that, Haru-chan would be identified as not a threat, but as one of the students."

The detective typed in the controls that showed a screen with a need for a password. The blonde was surprised by that. "You planned this ahead?"

"No. We all know that this was in case either one of them fell into despair and needed to be...rewinded back before that. Each and every one of them has a password. Haru-chan already prepared her own."

"How far?"

"Freshmen year, but with the events of the game included. She won't remember any of us or that this is a game, or that Chiaki is a program." She glanced at the screen. "Hurry. Monobear is ready to strike."

"Monobeasts! I bid thee rise!" Monobear called out. The statues came back to life scaring the crap out of everyone.

"Everyone, pwease, stand back! I-I will pwotect you! Even at the cost of my own life. I will pwotect you all!" Usami promised.

A promise Haru knew couldn't be kept. It was happening all over again, and she didn't know what to do once again.

Now she understood the headaches. The system was going to kill her, and whether she lived or not was not entirely sure upon Togami's decision to erase everything and leave her defenseless among the students who massacred the world.

"Upupu. What is this? Upupupu. Oh, I see! This is that feeling before you throw up! The nausea one gets from witnessing such a hackneyed sense of justice! Fine! I decided! If that's what you want, I'll just make you an example!" The monobeasts went straight for Haru.

The pain in her brain numbed by her fear as her life flashed before her eyes and then was taken away from her. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" She screamed before dropping down to the floor unconscious.

The monobeasts flew passed her and then destroyed Usami instead.

"Haru-chan!" Komaeda ran towards her. "Tsumiki-chan!" The teen called out to her but the nurse was under so much shock.

Togami walked out of the room.

"Togami-kun!"

"Leave him Naegi." Kirigiri stopped him from running after the blonde. "Togami-kun needs time to think about his actions."

"How? How did he know what password to type in if he didn't know about this? That this was for Haru-chan?"

"Haru-chan only wanted Togami to do this, and she never told me it, so it must've been personal and intimate."

"Like what?"

"A nickname perhaps."

BAKA-KUYA


	2. Feast for who we are

Chapter 2: Feast for who we are

Haru sharply gasped for air when she woke up. She looked around in the dark to soon be able to identify the things in her room. She then noticed the sharp pain in her head as her eyes burned.

She was thirsty, but then remembered her situation. She was on an island filled with strangers who might be stupidly desperate to get off this island. If there's anything she learned from watching movies, you can't trust anyone, but you can't seclude yourself either or else you're susceptible to gang ups.

She tried to calm down. She huddled herself together taking in deep breaths that pushed the tears out of her.

After a while, she hesitantly went to the bathroom thinking that someone could be in her room right now. She got there safely and looked at herself in the mirror to see that her eyes were reddened. She took in deep breaths.

"Okay...Haru, you're stuck on an island with a bunch of strangers... out to kill you." She took a couple more breaths. "No! Think this logically! Remember what your therapist told you...Yeah, we're all a victim. It's not like we're skilled killers or anything. Except Kuzuryuu and Peko..." She groaned. "I need to run this off..." She looked at the bathroom door. She gulped.

She took off her uniform to reveal that she wore her soccer uniform under it. With it, she exited her room quietly. She was cautious before taking the run around the island. She didn't feel relaxed or afraid as she ran. She felt anxious. Anxious that there was a finish line out of everything.

When the sun began rising, she went back to her room to take a shower, and then put on a spare soccer uniform and her own school uniform. She was ready to go until the bear appeared.

"No! No! Don't go out!" Haru screamed and launched a kick at it. The bear jumped away. "How dare you try to kick me?! That's a violation of the rules! But since I surprised you, I will show you leniency. Aren't I so kind? Upupupu!"

"What the fuck are you doing here?!"

"There's no need to use foul language. You see, I wanted you to find my figures." And then the bear explained about them and the coins she'd get to win a prize.

Haru doubted that she would get anything useful so ignored it and exited to see Souda and Hinata talking about something with the bridges. Then the bear appeared out of nowhere, and told them about the monobeast guarding it.

Then Peko showed up making Souda scream. "I came all the way here just to call you. Don't treat me like a monster."

"Eh? You came to call us?" Hinata questioned.

"I've been asked to. The three of you didn't seem like you were going to show up, so I went looking for you." She explained. "We're having a meeting. We're waiting at the hotel restaurant. Come quickly." She walked away.

"What's this meeting about?" Hinata asked.

Souda groaned. "I'm out. I want nothing to do with it. I-I'M RUNNING AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

"Hey!" Haru grabbed his collar before he got away.

"No let me go! I'm gonna run away!"

Haru slapped him to the ground.

"Yo-you hit me!"

"Breathe." She ordered, and the teen shut his mouth shallowly breathing through his nose. "Deeply in through your nose and out of your mouth." She knelled down and instructed him until he calmed down. "Better?"

"Ye-yeah." He was a sitting quivering mess.

"Now listen to me. My coach always told me that you can't run away from the game. You got to take it by the balls and kick them across the field!"

"I-I don't understand."

Right, soccer logic don't mix with mechanics. "Okay, think about it like this. You're hired to create a robot that is suppose to set out to destruction, but you have to make sure you and your employer is not the robot's target right."

"I don't see where-."

"Listen." She ordered and the male did. "The only way you can make sure that robot doesn't kill you or the employer is by taking control. What you have to do is take this on and you can't do that by running away cuz nothin's gonna get done. Alright. Or else that robot's gonna take you as a target. Do you understand?"

"...Yes. But-"

"But nothing. You'll do fine if you keep it in mind that you can take control of the situation because you're a mechanic. You're too useful to get rid of if you can help us get off this island. If you can't do your job, you're expendable. Alright?"

"Y-yes."

"Good." She gave an uplifting smile. "Now let's go. The others are waiting." Haru got up and extended a hand to him.

The mechanic took her hand and got up. They walked into the lobby where they found Nanami.

"Huh? I was told everyone's already at the restaurant." Hinata said.

"I thought I could get a game in before everyone got here. But I guess it's time to go." The gamer and them went into the restaurant.

"Finally you're here." Twogami said. Haru was greatly surprised to see him. Didn't understand why she realized how different Twogami was before. "Now that we're all here, we can continue our meeting."

"Hold on Sherlock, let's eat breakfast first." Haru said.

"I agree!" Owari was already eating her portion.

"No. This is important." The heir said with an authoritative voice which Haru challenged.

"Having the energy to go through the day with that thing on our asses is more important than your yap right now. Who knows if that things gonna make us do freakin' obstacle game to test us or something."

"She does serve a point." Sonia backed her up.

"Hmph. If that's what you wish to do then go ahead, but I am going through with this meeting."

Then there was a scream. Everyone looked to see that it was Tsumiki having a spectacular fall. Haru was surprised by the turn of events, but then ignored it to sit down and eat. She was a nurse so could help herself.

The food tasted good, but then Hanamura went off about how his cooking would've been better.

"Hey." Souda sat next to her. "Thanks fer this mornin'. I feel a lot better after you told me that."

"It's what I do as the captain of the soccer team. It's tradition or somethin' to give inspirational speeches to your teammates."

"Are you okay Haru-chan?" Sonia asked. "You fainted yesterday when we thought Monobear was about to use you as the example."

"Example?"

"Oh dear! You don't remember!"

"How can she remember? Even I don't want to remember something like that!" Souda said.

"I see that you're eating a lot of chicken!" Nidai pointed out. "It's important to eat a lot of poultry! It's low in calories and high in protein! It's an honor meeting you Takahashi-san!"

"It's an honor to meet you too! You're Nekomaru Nidai! The youngest coach to ever motivate several different teams athletic and not to the championships!"

"Heh heh! Yeah, but even with my training, your team still won the championships." The coach sounded slightly disappointed.

"It was a close game though."

"Yes, though I am impressed by the fact that watching the game in every angle, you were the only one who ever scored through our goalie."

"The only one?" Sonia was astounded.

"It couldn't be helped. My teammates weren't to my level yet. If we had you as the coach, we might have actually worked as a team."

"How can you play soccer without working as a team?" The princess asked.

"We did work as a team. Just that they relied on me to do most of the work."

"If you're done chattering over there, let's get on with the meeting. First, I'd like to pose a question to you all. We've been ordered to kill each other by that Monobear, but If we wish to live through this extraordinary ordeal, what do you think is of the utmost importance right now?"

"Feh, how should we know?" Kuzuryuu said. "Just hurry up and get to the point."

"If you want me to get to the point, answer my question." Twogami countered.

Everyone said random answers. Komaeda mentioned about bonds which meant that they should stick together in order to survive. It was a wishy washy speech, but Haru thought it was a good idea.

But then the heir had another answer. "What we need most right now is a gifted leader to be in command!"

"I see." Nidai nodded. "Every team needs a captain, that much is true."

"And you will be delighted to hear that I will take on this responsibility myself." Twogami announced.

"Wait a minute! You are being too aggressive." Koizumi pointed out. "Even if you are a heir, you're attitude is just too aggressive!"

"Wait Koizumi." Komaeda told her. "You're right. Togami is a bit aggressive but considering our circumstances, I think to be a leader, you need to be somewhat aggressive."

"I guess you're right. But if we're looking for someone born to lead, shouldn't it be Sonia-chan?"

"No, I would not at all be fit. My role has always been more like that of a decoration." Sonia excused herself.

"Then what about you Haru-chan?" The photographer looked to her. "You're an actual captain."

The soccer player arched an eyebrow to this. "I'm just a soccer player. Real life strategies are another thing." That wasn't actually true. To be a captain, you needed to be an inspiration, and a strategist as she also planned with the coach. But considering her odd feelings, she couldn't think straight.

"But you were really good at calming me down earlier!" Souda pointed out.

"I think the real matter is not whether I lead, but who's willing to listen. I've had teammates who'd go against my orders. Even if I lead, there isn't a hundred percent reassurance that we'll all get out of this island."

That made the atmosphere depressing.

"That is true." Tanaka said. "One cannot lead an army without losing men behind."

"Shut up!" Souda shouted at him.

"What's wrong?" Saionji questioned. "Afraid that you're one of the people who'll get left behind?"

"N-No! You'll protect me right Haru-chan?!"

"Considering that we're the opposite sex, we can't exactly be together twenty-four seven."

"Nng! Then I'll latch onto Hinata!"

"Wha-what?! How did it come to me?!"

"That's enough." Twogami interrupted. "If Haru-chan does not want to be the leader, then it's decided that I shall lead you."

"Then you'll lead." Haru agreed. "You figured out more about this island's mystery than the rest of us did."

"Yes, I did. Then it's decided. Don't worry. As long as I'm your leader, there will not be a single victim. I shall lead you well. That, I promise!" The heavy blonde vowed.

Ibuki squealed. "That's sooooo reassuring!"

"Well, then. Let's get to the actual main issue this time. There is something I want to show you."

"What is it?" Hinata asked.

"It's at Jabberwock Park. Over at the central island. Come quickly!" The new leader got up after finishing breakfast to leave. He really was aggressive that people had their doubts, but some did follow.

Haru was going to go but then Koizumi stopped her and Sonia at the lobby. "Wait Haru and Sonia-chan. I have a question for you. Why did you let Togami be the leader? You were an actual leader Haru-chan!" The photographer noticed Hinata still at the lobby. "Shouldn't you be at the park already? Togami will get mad."

"I could ask you the same question. What are you still here?"

"I just have something to discuss with Sonia and Haru-chan first! You men should just go already!"

"That's enough Koizumi!" Haru snapped. She then realized what she did. "I mean...enough. Sonia and I don't want to be leaders so let's leave it at that." She walked away still able to hear them talk behind her.

"Did I say something wrong?" Koizumi asked with concern.

"I'm sure she's just tense." Sonia reasoned.

The soccer player didn't understand why she burst out like that. She was usually in control of herself thanks to the therapist.

She began to panic. If she doesn't control herself, then that means that she might do something wrong and it would go out to the press! There was nothing she hated more than the media spreading rumors about her.

She calmed herself down. Reasoning that she'd control herself better.

When everyone was finally at the park, Twogami pointed out the timer that was where the statues used to be. "I walked around the island this morning and found it. It's unclear exactly when it was installed here."

"It must have been Monobear who installed it." Peko said.

"It looks like we have three weeks before the countdown end." Haru pointed out.

"Could it be a bomb of some sort?" Nidai questioned.

"A-A BOMB!" Souda was frightened.

"If they wanted to destroy the island, they would have done so by now. Why bother with the flashy countdown?" Twogami questioned.

"Obviously to make us want to kill each other." Haru responded placing her hands on her hips. "If someone doesn't graduate before the three weeks is up, we'll all die."

"WHAT?!" Everyone was shocked.

"Isn't that too extreme?!" Sonia questioned.

"Calm down!" Haru ordered. "It was only a thought!"

"What happening here?" Monomi appeared. They screamed.

"M-Monomi!" Hinata yelled.

"Weren't you dead?!" Owari asked.

"Noooo! I'm not dead! See!" She posed for them.

"I see. You must have been resurrected by Yomi, the land of the dead." Gundam said. "Then shall I hunt you down and domesticate you?"

"She's just a toy isn't she? You can't kill what isn't a live, can you?" Nanami pointed out. Haru looked at her and felt like she should know her more than she did now, but then ignored it.

"A spare huh." Souda said.

"Then how come it's here?" Koizumi asked.

"Don't call me an it! And I was patwolling the area and heard everyone's voices, so I came to see what was going on."

"Then you can answer my question." Twogami said. "Answer me. What does this countdown me?"

"Eh? Countdown?" the bunny then noticed the thing above and panicked. Then told them that she didn't know what it meant.

"Are you telling the truth? Do you really not know?" Peko questioned.

"I'm sworry. I rweally don't know!"

"You're his little sister, and you don't know?" Saionji was surprised.

"I am not my big bwother's wittle sister!" Then the thing suggested to work together but then Twogami called it useless and to get lost.

"B-But-"

"Go. Away." He demanded, and it skittered away.

"Um, I think we were a little bit too harsh on her. I feel kind of sorry for her." Sonia said.

"Sonia-san! May I call you Sonia-san?" Souda said with utmost respect. "We shouldn't trust the bunny. She might be in cahoots with Monobear."

"Forget those friggin' bears, and focus on the clock." Kuzuryuu said.

Then all that was solved was how many mysteries were there. How did they get on the island? How was everything possible? What is that clock? What was the mastermind's true intentions? The island was a resort making no sense of why it was abandoned. There were answers that only led to more mysteries or suspicions of each other.

For some reason, Haru felt like she knew all the answers. It was just at the tip of her tongue but then ignored it.

Then Twogami suggested investigating the island in order to discover the mastermind's true identity. The soccer player felt like it was at the tip of her tongue but ignored it. She noticed something about Twogami and accepting being called Mr. Porkfeet. She didn't understand why she understood him.

Kirigiri explained about the changes of Haru to Togami and Naegi. "There will be multiple problems with Haru's thoughts and behavior."

"Such as?" Togami questioned still regretting and hoping that he made the right decision. It was only a simulated game and if Haru were to die, there were professionals to help bring her back alive from being a vegetable. Though it might take years to do, at least he had the early start. But he also had faith that this Haru could win in the end like last time. He wasn't just marrying a girl.

"First you should remember that there are several parts within our brain. Our frontal lobe is how we are able to reason and move. What divides us from other animals. It is also where long-term memories are held." She explained. "In order to restart Haru's memories, her frontal lobe had to be tampered with. We made sure the procedure would be quick, easy and non painful, but we didn't expect a virus this strong."

"It was done by someone expected to be the new messiah, so I don't blame anyone. Not even Naegi who created the plan." Togami did blame people for their inadequate skills, but he also blamed himself for not thinking ahead either.

"Togami-san, I am very sorry for what happened, but I promise you that I will bring them out of the game. Especially Haru-chan!" The SHSL Hope promised. It was slightly reassuring.

"Back to Haru's condition," Kirigiri continued. "The virus interrupted the procedures which meant not only has Haru's memories been tampered but also her reasoning and movements, too. How much damaged she sustained and how far the damage may increase, we don't know. Not only is she in a dangerous situation, she is a danger to them. She might kill someone, and wouldn't understand why."

When everyone was splitting up, Souda went towards her. "Hey Haru-chan, want to go to the market with me to get some cola?"

She didn't see anything wrong with that. "Sure, but I thought you were gonna get closer to Hinata."

"That useless guy? Why would I want to spend time with him?"

"Cuz that means he doesn't have the skills to kill you unlike me."

"What?!"

"Jus' kiddin'! I won't kill you Souda. Like I said, you're too valuable to kill."

"Ri-right." The boy made a second guessing face.

"If you don't want to get cola together, I'll be on my way."

"Yeah, you do that!" The mechanic walked away.

Haru sighed thinking she made a mistake again. Why couldn't she get her act together? At this point, when they get out, they'll make the worse of her. Not that she cared! Maybe a little. A very very little!

She sighed and saw that Nanami was heading out. She looked at her ElectroID to see that she got one hope shard from everyone except for Souda where she had two. The morning of calming him down must've counted. She needed five more for all of them, so she set off towards the program to accidentally bumped into Hinata.

"Sorry." She apologized.

"No, it was my fault. Haru-chan, right?"

"Yeah, and you're Hinata." They stare at each other. Hinata looked to be surprisingly readable. "Hey, I'm sorry for this morning. I know I shouldn't have reacted that way."

"Uh, no! No, that's okay. We're all pretty stressed out anyway." He was thinking again.

"You shouldn't excuse my actions for bein' a captain. That should mean that I am able to handle my anger!" She stopped herself. "I'm sorry! Just-Just don't tell any of the press about this when we're off the island! I beg you!"

"I-I won't!" He thought again.

"I don't care what the press has to say! Or what any of you guys think of me for that matter! Damn, I can't stop getting angry! Whatever! Leave me alone!" She ran away. She didn't understand.

For some reason when she faces Hinata, her heart started racing and her palms get sweaty. What's going on with her? She looked for worthy advice, but after she build her hope shards by talking to the others since building friendships was the most important.

Akane remembered her name and wanted to get into a match or a fight. Unable to say no, they got into race from all around the beach back to where their line was drawn. Not surprisingly Haru won since her sport involved more running. Nidai saw their match and they talked about sports and championships. Tsumiki was really shy that Haru had a full hour of trying to lift her spirits. She then talked to Saionji who was definitely secretly Maleficent's child. Koizumi was very nice to talk to. Almost motherly in fact. Komaeda was very kind and modest but so frail that Haru got him to do some exercises with her. She avoided Tanaka because he was very weird. Hanamura was being a pervert and got his second pounding. Ibuki was energetic and fun. Twogami was being an arrogant jerk with his obsession with meat surprising the girl more. Kuzuryuu wanted to be left alone, but Haru stubbornly talked to him by talking about herself which got her to know about his Yakuza stuff. The boy got angry after being tricked. Pekoyama was very stoic, but got to know her better a little bit on their strengths and skills. Tanaka was even more difficult when he talked about animals, fairytales and himself. Souda and her talked again. She got to know a bit about the mechanic's family life and dream to build a rocket. She told him the very basics of her family owning a business and wanting to own a business herself someday. Nanami and her played a game together.

She was forgetting her problem with Hinata but when she saw him, she had the same reaction with her palms sweating and heart racing.

"I think it means you are in love." Sonia told her in Haru's room. Sonia was sitting on her bed while the soccer player was doing hand-stand push ups. "Are you in love with Hinata?"

"Hell no! But for some reason I get so angry when I acknowledge the fact that he's around."

"Everyone experiences the symptoms of love at first sight differently. Do they not?"

"I should've known better than to look for advice from someone who is destined for true love." She lied on her bed hopelessly hoping that the pillow would snuff her.

"I am sorry I can't give good advice. I should've told you that I am no expert."

"No." She sighed facing her head sideways on her pillow. "I'll figure it out." She got up sitting next to the princess. "So what about you? Like any of the guys?"

"I do have this one person, but you first."

Togami from outside listened into this. Haru arched an eyebrow at her. "Me?" She scoffed. "None of these idiots. Hanamura's a perve who almost committed a felony." She didn't get into more detail since Sonia wasn't aware of that. "Tanaka and Souda are weird. I don't dig bad boys cuz their assholes so Kuzuryuu's out. Togami...Togami's alright. He's aggressive, but he means well. Nidai's amazing but not my type."

"And what is your type?"

"You first. Who's the dude?"

"Oh my, I still don't know if I should tell you. We all only just met."

"Doesn't mean you don't think anyone's cute! And don't worry! If there's anything I hate more, it's women gossipping. I attacked a girl on my team because she was one of the biggest gossip. No one liked her anyway."

"Since you put it that way, I shall tell you." The princess blushed. "The person I am currently taking a liking to is Tanaka-san."

"Weird goth boy? He does call himself a king."

"He is eccentric, but then that makes him all the more fascinating, don't you think? Especially his little hamsters! Aren't they just the cutest?!" Her eyes became stars.

"They're really are cute! But y'know, Souda likes you. He's really obvious about it."

"Oh yes, but I don't requite his feelings. It is most troubling to be liked."

"If you don't want him botherin' you, I'll distract him so he doesn't ruin your time with Tanaka."

"You'd do that?"

"Yeah. If we're gonna make the best of everythin', might as well make you meet prince charming."

"I'm not sure. Isn't that a bit mean to Souda-san?"

"It's not like you're going to accept if he asked you out. Plus I'm suppose to build my hope shards with him anyway. And I find Tanaka weirder, so you'll also be doing me a favor." Haru practically made deal.

"I see. Then you got yourself a deal! Oh I feel most joyest! Now it's your turn Haru-chan? What's your type?"

"My type?" Haru thought for a moment. "I don't know. I guess someone kinda like Komaeda, but I think he's gay."

Sonia gasped. "How come?"

"I see him with Hinata today and, I don't know. It's just the way he looks at him. Hinata is obviously oblivious to it, but I so see it."

"This is most intriguing! I wish to see it too."

Haru snorted. Then there was a ding. They checked their ElectroID to see that they got their hope shards. "Oh, I forgot about these things."

Sonia smiled happily. "But it means that we are getting along very well."

Then Monobear appeared on the monitor telling them to go to the park. Haru growled. "I swear that if that bear was a real person, he'd be the first person I'd kill on this damn island!"

"Please do not Haru-chan." Sonia told her. "Violence and threats can do no good in this situation."

The soccer player sighed. "You're right. Let's go."

They went to the park where everyone was guessing what was gonna happen, and then Kuzuryuu acted like a jackass to Souda getting Koizumi mad. Komaeda tried to remind them that they were all friends.

"Ah, friends? I think you're making a big mistake, retard. When did I ever say I'm your friend?!" The gangster pointed out. "Since there seems to be some confusion here, let me make this perfectly clear. I won't hesitate to kill any of you."

Then Haru kicked him on the face. Peko got in between them. "Get out of my way." She ordered darkly.

"No. We shouldn't be fighting. It won't solve anything."

"It will solve this. Get this shortie," She directed it at Kuzuryuu. "I agree with you. I am not your friend, but doesn't give you the right to patronize mine. Go be acting like a damn punk somewhere else!"

"You think I'm gonna let you get away with this you bitch!"

"Enough." Twogami ordered. "Kuzuryuu, I understand the way you think. I simply don't discredit the way that you think. I once thought the same way, after all."

"Are you treatin' me like a kid, too?!"

"But, what do you think is going to happen if you recklessly kill someone? If you can't hide your deeds, you are going to be executed. Or perhaps, that is what you want?" Twogami looked at him with all seriousness. "Is this just your way to commit suicide so you can escape our predicament? Because that would be childish."

The gangster was unable to form words. Haru then felt childish herself, but not guilty for what she did. Then Twogami promised to keep them all, including Kuzuryuu, safe because he was Togami Byakuya.

Why did it felt so wrong when the teen called himself his name? Haru ignored the lingering feeling. But seriously. Why did it feel like the positions were reversed with Twogami promising life while Kuzuryuu treated it as a game?

"Remember my words carefully. 'I will not let anyone die'. That is my promise and my responsibility. I will not fail any of you."

Those heroic words sounded definitely out of place. Togami outside scoffed. "I wouldn't say such petty words." But then he saw the look on Haru's face as if she was pacified by his words.

Suddenly Monobear appeared telling them that he was going to give a manzai show for them with Monomi on the stage in front of the countdown. There were useless questions and answers thrown in, until he mentioned the erased memories.

"That Monomi selfishly stole you bastards' memories!"

"What t'heck! I mean huh?" the bunny tried to play stupid but then it made sense.

It made sense of why Haru was feeling strange. Of why she couldn't be calm. And it was just not getting on the island but the years she spent in the school. So many questions flashed in his mind as everyone else was trying to make sense of the situation too, but then only one answer came to her.

"YOU FUCKIN' RODENT!" Haru kicked the bunny out of the island to the sea. Monobear whistled with arms raised meaning that she got a point in an imaginary football game.

"Haru-chan! Please calm down!" Sonia told her.

"She deserved it." Haru growled.

"Upupupu! Looks like Haru-chan believes me." The bear laughed. "Guhahahaha! And I wasn't even getting to the good part! The sweet, kind Monobear can give you back your memories but you have to do something in return, and you all know what that is!"

"The mutual killings." Peko responded.

"That's right! This is my one and only non-negotiable condition!" It laughed. "You're dying to know aren't you! You guys want to remember your school life don't you? If so, then you gotta kill, kill, kill! Make it a murder to remember!"

"Hey asshole! I let you talk for way too long!" Owari said wanting to do something.

"Huh? But all I did was give you a motive out of the kindness in my heart. Before, you cowards were too scared to kill, but now you have a justifiable motive right?"

"Do-Don't be ridiculous! Do you really think one of us will kill because of some delusional story from you?!" Twogami hesitantly questioned.

"That's right! I don't believe you're crazy story!" Koizumi exclaimed.

"Maybe you don't. But can you say for the rest?" Monobear challenged.

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"You haven't noticed have you? That there's two traitors among you! There are seventeen of you bastards here right? There was supposed to be only fifteen students coming to this island! And I don't even know their identities! There was one, but it seemed to have slipped my mind."

"What the fuck are you saying?! What's this talk about a traitor?!" Kuzuryuu was bewildered by the events.

"It's just nonsense! He's just trying to make us suspicious of each other!" Peko pointed out.

"But you truly don't know anything about each other." Monobear pointed out. "You don't know each other's true natures. Would any of you even notice if one of you was scheming murder? I don't think you would! Do you?!"

Everyone was quiet except for Haru who couldn't contain her anger. "Even if one of us were to betray each other, even if there's an idiot among us, I still believe in my friends to live for me!" Everyone looked at her.

"Oh, so you believe that you're going to one of the victims?" Monober questioned.

"Like you said, none of us can tell who's a victim and who's a killer, but eventually the killing among us will stop, and we will turn against you once again, and win this sick game!"

"But you admit that you're going to kill each other!"

"It's better than a false promise! But us winning is certainly the truth! I never once lost a game, and I'm not stopping here! Dead or alive!"

"But I don't want you to die Haru-chan!" Sonia cried out.

"Ye-Yeah!" Souda agreed.

"You can't win chess without sacrificing a few pieces, and I have faith in you guys." The soccer player smiled confidently at the princess. "I will be the knight who'll spell the L word all over Monobear!"

"How dare you insult me?! I should give you a good licking for that!" Monobear exclaimed.

"Licking?!" Tsumiki was confused. "Is that what the L word means?"

"Hohoho, if so, then I wouldn't mind joining." Hanamura couldn't help to say.

"No! It does not mean that you stupid bastards!" Monobear shouted at them furiosly. "It doesn't matter. In fact this is better! This means that once the mutual killings begin, you'll see things my way better! Nothing is more despairing than building hope and then breaking it down. Guwahahaha! Remember, if you want your memories and get off this island, you have to kill or get killed. Guwahahahaha!" Then the bear left as Monomi was coming back.

"You there." Twogami called out to it. "Answer me at once. Was what Monobear said was true?"

"Hoeh?"

"About our memory loss and two traitors among us. Are the two traitors working together? Are you one of them?" He clarified.

"U-um, well, you see, if you dwell too much in the past, you'll lose sight of the fu-" Haru stomped on it.

"Don't give me that crap. Give us an honest answer you damn rodent!"

"I-I can't tell you!"

"Then it's true isn't it." Saionji pointed out. "Bunnies are too stupid to think of a better answer anyway."

"So we really lost our memories?" Koizumi was completely shocked.

Haru kicked Monomi across the island again. "It doesn't matter. The truth is waiting for us off of this island, so we gotta investigate the island more thorough than ever."

"Haru-chan is right." Komaeda agreed. "In order for us to get off this island, we must work together as friends in order to beat Monobear at his own game."

"You're embarrassing yourself again." Saionji pointed out.

"So-Sorry." Komaeda apologized.

"Do we have to do that right now? I wanna sleep." Owari asked.

"Right! Sleep is the most important part of your health if you wished to live long and win!" Nidai preached.

"How can you even think of sleeping after what we heard?" Souda questioned. "Monobear's right! What if someone is plotting murder right now?!"

"...I guess we will never know, so the best thing we can do is trust each other for now." Nanami responded.

It wasn't reassuring but then it was a start. Twogami than proposed that they would work it out further tomorrow during breakfast. Everyone went to their own room afterwards.

Haru recollected the day and felt a pinch of embarrassment for what she said about winning but also felt her pride grow stronger that she really looked forward to winning. There was no competition she didn't win.

But then she remembered that she forgot several years of memories in Hope's Peak. How was that person doing? She looked for a blank notebook in her things to write in but there wasn't one. She sighed roughly.

"So much for therapy." She dropped herself on her bed to sleep, but couldn't. Souda was right. She was worried.

She got up and walked outside. The weather had a nice chill so she didn't need a jacket to take a run before coming back. As she was coming back, she noticed that someone else was, too, right in front of her to the hotel.

She slowed and hid behind a tree when the person looked back. Haru then took a quick glance to see that it was Chiaki. This almost surprised her if the teen was one of the traitors. Since the girl was a gamer, it couldn't be hard for her to create something that's remote controlled. But then that puts Souda on the suspect list since he was a mechanic who could've created all those things himself if he was truly hiding the extent of his abilities.

She felt guilty accusing the mechanic and frightened if the person he is was just an act. When she told him that he was valuable, she wasn't lying.

The next morning, Haru woke up to Monobear being her alarm clock. She threw her pillow at the monitor which did nothing for her. She got up, got dressed, and then set out to the restaurant for the meeting.

There she came across Tsumiki next to the pool with Saionji and Koizumi. "G-good morning." The nurse told her nervously.

"Morning Tsumiki."

"Eh? Eeeeeeeh? This is the first time a girl greeted me back! I am very lucky this morning! U-um, do you mind if we do it again."

"Uh, sure." It was awkward but nothing wrong.

"Good morning!" She said hopefully.

"Morning." Haru supplied. The nurse giggled happily that made her cute. "Aren't you going to the restaurant?"

"Y-yes. I'm sorry!"

"Whoa, it's okay." The soccer player placed a hand on her shoulder meeting her eye to eye. "You don't need to please everyone. You being the nurse is reassuring enough that if anything bad happens, we'll be okay."

"But what if I fail? I'm so-"

"Listen to me Tsumiki. You were chosen to be SHSL nurse for a reason, so that counts for something right. You assisted in helping people before and considering your fall the other day, yourself and others alone, too. Am I right?"

"U-um, yes."

"Then have some self confidence. You're important in this group." Haru told her firmly.

The girl blushed. "I-I'm important?"

"Yeah. You, Souda, and practically everyone else is important for us to get off this island."

"That's the first time someone told me that I was i-important. I feel like crying. I-Is that o-okay?"

"Cry if you want. It's your life."

The nurse cried. "Thank you Haru-chan! I-I'll try my best!"

Saionji snorted. "What are you saying? You're just saying that, so this pig will stop complaining."

"Pi-Pig?!"

"Shut up Saionji! All you do is dance and be a brat. Go back to your mama and bother her."

"What did you say you slut?!"

"Slut?!" Haru was surprised by that insult.

"Yeah, you're a slut?! A big fat ugly slut?!" The blonde was in tears.

"Now you're just being a kid! Aren't you our age? I think someone mistake a headstarter for a teenager!"

"Plea-please stop!" Tsumiki tried.

"Shut up you shitty bitch!" Saionji yelled.

"Don't talk to her like that!" Haru defended her. "You should treat your elders with respect!"

"What elders?! We're the same age!"

"Then act like it!"

"What is going on here?" Twogami questioned. "We could hear you shouting from the restaurant."

Haru crossed her arms. Saionji burst into tears and ran away. Nobody ran after her. The soccer player sighed. She needed friends. Not enemies. "I'll get her." She ran after the blonde and stop her by holding her wrist.

"Ow! You're hurting me! Help!"

"Shut up! I'm here to apologize!" Haru snapped.

"I don't accept your apology! You're a meanie!"

"I know." The soccer said calmly and let her go. "I am sorry for shouting at you. I was being childish, too. But I wasn't in the wrong for defending Tsumiki. In order to get off this island, we need to work together and not pull each other down."

"Then I don't want to get off this stupid island!" She lied. Children lie.

"Saionji, I've met girls like you before. Trust me, I've been to rich parties, and I always see the same spoiled brat who kicks people where it hurts not because it makes them feel better, but gets the attention they crave for." Then Haru thought about what she said before. "So I'm sorry I told you to go to your mama cuz we can't do that now."

"That's not it you stupid mongreal. I don't need attention from slaves like you!"

"Excuse me?! And what makes you so great?!"

"You don't know. Typical. I am the heiress of a tradition Japanese dance school!"

"That's it?" Haru was not impressed.

"What do you mean that's it?"

"It's a dance school. I'm the daughter of the Takahashi sports business and conglomerate. Not only does my parents' business famous for it's sports-related products, but for being invested in other unrelated business. It's second to the Togami conglomerate business."

"Wait, aren't you just a scrawny ball kicker? You can't mean..."

"Yup, I'm the heiress to the first most powerful business in the sports industry, and second most powerful in the conglomerate business. My parents made me a soccer player just to raise the business's popularity. I didn't want to make such a big deal of this, but you pissed me off..."

"Wai-Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't know! I promise to be good!" She cried.

"I don't want you to be good cuz I threaten you. Just lay off on picking on Tsumiki."

The dancer sniffed. "You really won't tell my grandma on me?"

Haru snorted. "No. I'm not a tattle teller. I'm not telling you to be a good girl. Just don't pick on Tsumiki or else."

"What makes that pig so special?"

"She's sensitive. I'm tryin' to give her some self-confidence. I can't leave a teammate down!" Haru said. She didn't like her soccer teammates but these were new people. Now she could act like a real captain without the title, and hopefully not worry about the press. Not that she cared what they thought about her. She didn't! "Let's go. The others must be waiting for us."

The two walked back to the restaurant.

"Big sis Haru-chan?" Saionji asked.

"Hm?"

"Why are you friends with that Sonia?"

"Just coincidence."

"I bet you just like the fact that she's a princess." Saionji pouted.

"We're friends cuz Sonia wanted to be friends."

"Ha. Friends are just weaklings plotting together. This world is divided between people with chosen noble origin like us, and those who serve us as slaves."

"Or friends are people who are interesting to talk to and willing to listen. The best thing about a friend is that you can chose them yourself unlike family members who you're force to be with or feel inclined to. I never really got to see my parents, and I find it odd of why I feel like they're a priority right now on this island."

"Don't look at me. I never had the chance to see my parents either."

"It's because of your grandma right?"

"Ho-How did you know?"

"I've actually been to one of those dances your school performs and met her. I know all about how your grandmother is, and why you act the way you do which is why I'm not holding a real threat over your head to be nice to everyone. Especially Kuzuryuu."

"He's a real shota isn't he?" Saionji questioned innocently having the teen snort. "Yaay! I made you laugh!"

"That still doesn't give you the right to bully Tsumiki." She reminded her. The dancer pouted and mumbled indecent words Haru chose to ignore.

They got to the restaurant where they had the meeting, without Kuzuryuu, that Twogami wanted to have a party. It was odd but then it would lighten the mood. They decided to do it at the lodge after Monomi said that they could.

Then there was cleaning duty, and Komaeda decided that they had to draw chopsticks, and ended up being the one on the duty. Hanamura took the duty of cooking the food as well having claimed that his food was the tastiest.

When it was over, Haru decided to take the chance of having Sonia meet prince charming. "You should talk to him now." She told her, and then winked, "I'll distract Souda."

The princess blushed. "There really is no need. I want to be friends with everyone despite the troubles."

"I'm not asking you to marry him. Just take this chance to know him better without this guy ruining it. Go." Haru ordered.

"If you say so. Thank you again Haru-chan." The princess walked towards Tanaka and the two were engaged in a conversation.

The soccer player did her job of distracting Souda by talking to him while walking around the beach. Haru made sure to peer out for Sonia. She found him interesting by how his looks clashes with his sensitive personality.

"Huh? Your parents own Saionji's school?" The mechanic was surprised.

"The clan was having financial issues so my mom swooped in and saved the day, but with interest, of course. So her family is in debt to mine making her under my power. Not that I'll use it against her." They were taking a walk along the beach where their feet sunk into the soft wet sand and the breeze was nice while the sun sparkled the water.

"Hey Haru-chan, if you don't mind me askin', do you have a thing against short people?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, Hanamura told me ya kicked him the first day we got here. You kicked the crap out of Kuzuryuu yesterday, and then got mad at Saionji this morning. It doesn't take a genius to connect the dots."

Haru blinked. "I don't have anything against short people. They just happen to do things that piss me off! First off, Hanamura almost tricked Sonia into giving him a blow job!"

"What?! Tha-that filthy asshole! I should beat some manners into him! How could he treat a fair maiden like that?"

"Well she is fair. But a maiden? Dude, what fairytales did you read as a kid?"

"Huh? What'dya mean?" Souda was confused.

"Dude, she may be a princess, but she's not a stereotype. I know that you have a crush on Sonia, and I hate to break to you, but since we're friends, I'll tell you. She's not into you dude."

"Not into me?! Wh-Why?!"

"Two things. One: you're not her type, and two: you don't act as someone who could change her mind."

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"You don't know how to treat girls. You're not as creepy as Hanamura, but you definitely are creepy." She responded the truth.

"Creepy?! How am I creepy?! Is it because of the hair? The teeth? I swear I'll change!"

"Slow down and listen to me. I'm telling you this now for your own good so you won't screw up when you talk to girls."

"Really? How?"

"By restraining the pervert, and talking about regular or more intimate things. Girls love to know who you are without the pervert, and loves it more when you listen."

"Restraining the pervert, talk and listen. Got it. Do you think Sonia-san would like that?"

Haru rolled her eyes. "Let it go Souda. Boyfriend zoning a girl is wrong."

"I am not boyfriend zoning her!"

"Yes you are." Haru retorted. Souda tried to bicker his way out of doing such a thing but gave in soon.

"Fine. But what am I supposed to talk about? I never talked to a girl before."

"Ouch."

"Not like you! I mean you make it easy! But the other girls..."

"I get it. I'll help you." So they spent the day talking together. Haru taught Souda of how to be less of a creep to girls while also sharing other things about themselves. Haru learned about Souda's mother never being there since she left him and his dad. The soccer player related about the fact that her mother didn't act like a mother anyway.

Then made plans to go to the party together after building hope shards with others. Haru figured Sonia had a lot of time bonding with Tanaka. The two did want to talk more but it was better to make as much friends as possible.

She found Sonia talking to Tanaka, so talked with them together to discover how cute a couple they really were. Both dark, weird and proclaimed royalty.

After all that, it was getting late, and Souda wanted to take a shower before the party, so he went to the hotel while Haru waited for him.

She rechecked her electroID to see that she had three hope shards from everyone except Hinata where she only had one. She really didn't want to talk to him. It's not him, but how she can't help feeling about him.

"You there." Gundam called out to her.

"Oh Tanaka. Where's Sonia? Did she leave to the party without you?"

"The mortal has left to prepare herself for thy feast. Why is thou staying here in the presence of the hotel?"

"I'm waiting for Souda. He just needs to wash himself before heading to the party. His jump suit got wet and sticky with sand when we were walking at the beach."

"I see. So you and this mere mortal Souda..." Gundam assumed since what they did was have a nice long walk by the beach.

"No. We're just friends, but Tanaka, what do you think about Sonia?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know! You two have been talking the whole day today. She's really pretty right?"

"I don't know what you are talking about. I, Gundam Tanaka, do not take interest in mere humans."

"But she's a princess isn't she? Princess are quite mystical aren't they?"

"But she is still a mere mortal if she has not dwelled to places I have and have not."

"So you've been to Novoselic. It's her country y'know."

The teen was silent.

Then Souda exit from his room. Haru saw that Sonia was coming out to, so grabbed him and ran. "Bye Tanaka!"

"Hey! Why're we runnin' all of th' sudden?"

"I wanted to get away from him. It was really awkward."

"I get what y'mean. He's a real weirdo that guy."

Then they were at the lodge. Twogami had them be body searched, and found the wrench to the mechanic's dismay. And Souda didn't like the fact of Haru being touched. "Hands off the lady! She's obviously hiding nothing!"

"Don't be a fool. Everyone must be searched because as I had promised, their shall be not a single victim tonight." The blonde reasoned.

"It's okay Souda. I'm clean." She allowed a body search and was clean.

"It seems that you are not carrying any dangerous weapon."

"Of course she's not!"

"But I will be holding onto this wrench."

"C'mon man!"

"Let's go you dork." Haru pulled the pink guy into the lodge where there was an office, a bathroom, a kitchen, a storage room, and a hall.

"What do you think those cases are for?" Souda questioned noticing them next to Twogami.

"One probably filled with food and the other for security purposes."

"Security my foot! He plans on offing one of us t'night!"

"Then you better keep your guard up."

"Yeah, n' you should, too. I don't wanna lose you either." Haru gave him a suspicious face. "What? I'm not hittin' on you. If you don't want me to..."

"No. Sorry. We're friends Souda. Actually I oddly find you like a brother to me. Not to friend zone you or anythin'."

"Brother huh? I don't mind actually. The funny thin' is that yer like a sister to me, too. I feel pretty lucky that we're friends." Souda sounded honest with the big goofy grin on his face.

They then entered the hall to see that Komaeda did a nice job. "Oh, Haru-chan! So, what do you think?"

"You did this all by yourself?" The soccer player was amazed.

"Yeah. This place was covered in cobwebs and dust all over, so it took me all day to clean up the hall."

"You really worked hard. I'm proud of you!"

"It's nothing to be proud about. All I did was clean, and added a few decorations."

"But you gotta admit that you really did a great job that it's a bit suspicious."

"What do you mean?"

"...I don't know. It just feels odd, but I've been feeling odd since I got here."

"Is that so? Are you sick?"

"None that I know about. I'm not suspecting you to be a killer, but I will be keeping my guard up."

Then Sonia and Tanaka arrived together. Haru happily went over to the princess, and went to the corner to whisper. "So I saw you guys earlier. You guys looked really good together!"

"Please, Haru-chan. It's too soon to claim us as a couple. But I do feel closer to Tanaka-san."

"That's great! I hope Souda didn't interrupt you two when I left him."

"Oh not at all! I didn't see him until now."

Then Twogami interrupted by announcing that everyone, except Kuzuryuu, was here. Twogami then made sure that all dangerous items including kitchen utensils were to be put away in one of the case which was to be guarded by Peko at the office. Twogami was to guard the other one.

Nanami volunteered to talk with Monomi to make sure Monobear wouldn't interrupt them. Haru watched her leave feeling that suspicious yet trustworthy feeling again. She ignored it.

After that was settled, everyone was allowed to eat. Owari went nuts with the food. Hanamura kept describing how great his food was, and Koizumi was taking pictures.

Haru was enjoying herself, too, but then Twogami stopped her. "We need to talk."

"About what?"

"It's of a private matter. We will talk in the kitchen."

"Okay." Haru felt goosebumps because she didn't exactly trust their leader, but she couldn't deny. The two went into the kitchen with the case he was protecting. "So what is this about?"

"We need to discuss about your rash actions. You mean well, but your violent antics are setting a wrong example if we want to work together to get off this island."

"Violent antics." Haru scoffed. "If you're talking about the shorties, they deserved it! And what exactly happened to you last time?"

"...What are you talking about?"

"I saw you at one of those rich fancy parties your business host. It was only last year. A few months actually."

Togami from outside remembered this. Haru didn't open up of who she was entirely until they got out. She did in fact know who Togami was and actually met him, but the teen did not bother remembering her since he did not recognize those below him.

"I bet you don't remember me, but I definitely remember you. You changed massively for a few measly months. What happened?"

"..."

"In fact, you're a lot more humble. When I met you at first, you were really arrogant and self-centered. Didn't care at all for human life or what not. Did you get stuck on an island or-Wait that's a stupid thing to say since we're on an island. But I gotta admit that now is an improvement." Then Haru gave a warm approving smile. "If our businesses are still alright, I promise to beat you and become the number one most powerful business!"

She then stared at him. Took a good look at him to see something familiar that made her heart leap wistfully. She felt an urge to be in his arms, so she kissed him.

And it felt wrong.

She stepped away not understanding at all of why she did that, and Twogami looked shocked as well. It was the most awkward moment of her life.

Suddenly there was a beeping sound and the lights went off. "Uwah! The power's out!" Someone screamed.

"Everyone!" Twogami ran out with his case to save the day. Haru stayed inside trying to make sense of why she suddenly kissed the guy. She wasn't even into him, or even thought about it, and it felt wrong. Not right. What did Monobear do to her?

Hanamura came into the kitchen and grabbed a metal skewer out of a piece of meat.

"Hanamura?" Haru couldn't believe what she saw.

"Ha-Haru-chan! It's not what it looks like!" The soccer player didn't believe him so went for the door, but then the cook panicked and attacked her. Haru dodged him except she slipped and got cut at the side and had her head bumped hard against a counter. Furious, she kicked the cook down and removed the skewer out of his hand.

Her hand was at his throat and she raised the hand holding that metal skewer. Togami, Kirigiri, and Naegi were up on their feet hoping that she wouldn't do it. Haru raised it higher and was ready to stab him but then stopped midway and dropped it.

Hanamura quickly kicked her in the abdomen and then grabbed the skewer to jam the blunt end to her temple. The cook then ran out leaving Haru bleeding on the floor.

"This is bad." Kirigiri said. Haru's body screen had showed red at the picture of the brain.

"Haru-chan!" Sonia ran in and saw her bleeding on the floor. "Tsumiki, Haru-chan needs help!"

Haru glanced out the kitchen door and then couldn't believe her eyes of who was on the floor.

Mioda lied lifeless on the floor with a knife sticking out of her abdomen. Haru's world turned blurry before turning dark.

She remembered the party that the Togami family was hosting before entering Hope's Peak. It was October so it was a masquerade charity ball. The Takahashi family was invited of course.

Haru had to look like the good daughter so her hair was back to a natural black which was braided and decorated with flowers. She wore a navy blue off-the-shoulder evening dress with a silver masquerade mask.

She didn't hate that she was dressed up. She liked being a girly girl from time to time, but she hated who she had to dress for.

She was with her parents. Her father looked dapper, and her mother was gorgeous. She remembered being an actual mask at that ball since off the field and with her parents, she was back to being that obedient quiet girl who wouldn't talk unless her parents told her to.

"Haruna." Her mother said. "How about you dance with this lovely young man?"

The soccer player looked at who she was talking about to see an upstanding fellow who wasn't wearing a mask. She didn't see the harm, so she agreed not that she couldn't anyway.

So she waltzed with the guy who flattered her with comments about her beauty. She challenged him of how he could know when she was wearing a mask. The man stuttered his words as she pressured him with answers.

At the end of the song, he looked lost that Haru thought that he should've worn a mask after all.

Then another song started and she was randomly asked by a blond. The blond was wearing black tux with a green tie and a gold mask. Despite the mask, she could tell he was handsome.

Not wanting to get back with her parents or meeting this Togami family, she agreed. The male said no words so she didn't say anything. Yet she heard whispers. She looked around to see that women and girls were looking at them and gossipping. She began to panic.

"What's wrong?" The teen asked.

"I think we should stop dancing." Haru told him.

"Why?" He sounded annoyed.

"Because!" She let go and walked away from him.

She hurriedly looked for her parents to find them talking to a man with an accessory next to him. She was quite a beauty.

"Haruna, good timing." Her father said and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Mr. Togami, this is my daughter, Haruna."

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you." The man told her. He was very handsome with a rugged chin, blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Father." The person she was dancing with before appeared. Haru's eyes widened behind her mask.

"Perfect timing. Mr. Takahashi, this is my son, Byakuya. Son, this is their daughter, Haruna."

"We met."

"You did?"

"On the dance floor. But it was cut short because someone couldn't handle a few gossips."

Haru gave a big fake smile and cocked her head to the side. "Already trying to make me look bad? An obvious sign of someone with just a brain and no heart whatsoever. How many whores do you plan on having?"

"Haruna!" Her mother was shocked by her attitude.

"Heh. If you planned on offending me, then you're doing a poor job." Byakuya crossed his arms with a smirk.

"Am I being offensive? Then you never seen me at my games. I can be very offensive."

"A soccer pun. Very cute of you."

"Thank you. You're very cute yourself." She held her fake smile. This was the most domestic fight she ever had.

"Very cute indeed!" Her mother said. "You two should spend more time together to get to know each other. Don't you think so Mr. Togami?" Haru saw the way she smiled at him. She touched her father's hand that was still on her shoulder.

"Yes. We should also enjoy the party as well. Son." He glanced at his son and then left.

"Be good Haru." Haru's father kissed her on her temple before leaving with her mother.

"I will daddy." The soccer player watched him leave.

"Being sentimental again?" Togami questioned with a mocking smirk.

Haru scoffed and walked away to just walk around and wait until her parents said that they could leave. When they were, instead of both her parents, it was just her father.

"She's sleeping with him isn't she?" The soccer player asked in the limo.

Her father sighed. "It's your mother's privacy."

That answer settled heavy in the soccer player's chest. "Aren't you going to see a pretty lady, too?"

"Haru."

"Dad."

Her father sighed. "You know-"

"I know. It was a business marriage, but I wish my mother wasn't such a big whore. At least you didn't flirt in front of me."

"We are not having this discussion!"

"Or what?! Ground me?! That'll be the first time in a long time that you did anything as a parent for me!" She tried not to cry but she did and her chest flamed up as those tears fell on her hot face. "...I know I'm not your daughter. "

"Haru." Her father raised his arms. "C'mere."

"...No." She shook her head.

"You are my daughter."

"You know that's not good enough. You always want to know the results and fix it... But you can't fix me." She breathed in roughly. "Do you know about the things I hear? I can't stand to hear them. I can't stand people gossipping! I can't!"

Then a phone rang. Her father sighed and answered it. He mouthed to her to wait a second. "Mr. Takahashi...Let me get back to you on that. I need to spend time with my daughter." He hung up and hugged her.

Haru sobbed. "I don't care who the hell you guys sleep with," She breathed in sharply. "But why couldn't I be your daughter?" Her father hushed her and stayed her shoulder to cry on.

Later, Haru told this to her therapist. The one person she felt safe with. "I don't want to return home. I don't want to look at my mother any more, and I don't want my dad to look at me. I can see it in his face that he's hurt every time he looks at me."

"But he loves you."

"He's just being the nice guy. He's only tough on his rivals, but when it comes to family, he's soft, and my mother takes advantage of that."

"I think you should be given time away from your parents. You are going to Hope's Peak after all. Where you will be living in one of their dorms. Give yourself a semester away from them. And then when you come back to them, everything you remember and what will happen then will clarify your reality."

"I'm not sure I should go. This Togami asshole's gonna be there."

"You shouldn't let a speed bump get in the way of your new adventure. Who knows? You might make real friends there."

"You're right, but after the semester, can I see you first? I heard that the school's full of weirdos. I might get traumatized or something."

"Of course. I am always here to help you Haru."

Haru woke up on her bed feeling woozy but she was okay. She sat up and realized that she wasn't in her room. Looking around, it was Sonia's. She's been to her room.

And then the memories came flooding in with a painful ache to the head. She checked her hip to see that it has been patched, and her head was wrapped with bandages. Tsumiki must've patched her up.

By the sunlight coming from the window, it must be tomorrow. That meant that the trial was over. She jumped out of bed and almost fell down by the lack of blood.

Sonia came back in time to catch her. "Haru-chan! You shouldn't be up!"

"Trial...What happened? Hanamura..." She felt like throwing up.

"You should rest first after taking a drink of water."

"I can't unless I know." Haru took a bottle of water that her friend handed to her. "I need to know who died, Sonia."

"...Togami-san killed Mioda-san." The princess responded. Haru's eyes widened. Sonia explained to her of what happened after she fainted from blood loss.

Tsumiki got her medical supplies to help stop the bleeding, and then Nidai carried her to her room. The trial had to begin without her, and it was clear enough that she wasn't a suspect after what happened to her in the kitchen.

Everyone did their best in finding clues of who killed Mioda. They discovered that Komaeda was insane, and was suppose to kill someone that night, but then Twogami stopped him, and grabbed the knife for himself. Before that, Hanamura planned on being the one to kill that night only to have been stopped by her.

When the cook ran, he accidentally bumped into Twogami who bumped into Mioda who instintively grabbed the knife. Reflexively, Twogami accidentally stabbed her. He realized what he did through his night vision goggles and tried to act like he wasn't even close to her at all by hiding his night vision goggles under the table before the lights went on just to act like somebody else used it.

"Wait, why would Togami hide the fact that he killed Mioda? I thought he was above that."

"He most definitely was. He didn't tell us that he killed Mioda-san, because he wanted us to work as a team and realized who our enemy was."

"Komaeda and Hanamura...How did Togami die?"

"It was the most horrific thing you'll ever see." Sonia began explaining in gruesome detail of Twogami's execution called:

**IDENTITY THEFT SHOW**

Twogami was hauled out by a chain and set on stage where his body was given different drastic makeovers that changes faster and faster until he was left to bones before being boiled into the volcano as if all traces of his existence was gone.

Haru was shocked. Her heart felt like it was going to strain because it couldn't decide to beat or not.

"I know it's a shock! All of us were shaken by his death, but you should also know that he left a message for you!" Sonia said behind her tears. "He said that he was sorry for having deceived you, and that he was not the real Togami. That you should live to see the real Togami!"

"Togami..." She thought back to that kiss, and what she said. Rage, guilt and bewilderment clashed into her that she clenched the sheets with her hands and cried. Sonia held her as she did.

A/N: I killed Mioda because I didn't want Hanamura to die and I had other plans for the other characters.

And yes, Haru's parents have affairs which she is okay with, but realizing that she's not her father's daughter made her run away to Hope's Peak and the reason why she wanted to see her therapist instead of her parents in the first fic.

Day 1 - Arrive at island, Day 2- Get to know people, Day 3 - Twogami and Ibuki dies


	3. We are History

A/N: Spoilers for the game.

Alive (15): Haru, Sonia, Tanaka, Souda, Hinata, Komaeda, Saionji, Nidai, Owari, Koizumi, Pekoyama, Kuzuryuu, Nanami, Hanamura and Tsumiki

Dead (2): Mioda and Twogami

Chapter 3: We are History

When Haru felt like she could walk, she had Sonia go to the second island without her. The princess didn't want to leave, but then left when the soccer play told her that she needed time to think alone.

Alone, she first went to the restaurant to fill her stomach and then do light exercise as she thought of what to do with herself. Her therapist told her that it was best to face her traumatic experience to not become afraid. So she went off to the lodge.

There, Monomi stopped her. "Stop rwight there!" Haru kicked her out of the way. If she can't kick Monobear with being killed, she might as well kick her stress away on the damn bunny.

She let herself in ignoring the bunny to find Hanamura and Komaeda tied up in the hall.

"Ha-Haru-chan! Save me!"

"Ah, Haru-chan, you found us. That must mean that Souda and Nidai must be occupied with other things." Komaeda looked half dead.

Seeing the situation, she left and then came back with duct tape, a metal skewer, large bags of chips, a plate, straws and a bottle of soda and water. She left Monomi tied up and duct taped in the storage room.

What she did first was duct tape Komaeda's mouth and then kicked Hanamura hard in the face that a tooth flew out. She then opened the bags of chips and soda to stuff them in Hanamura's mouth until he swallowed. She then stabbed the metal skewer into the ground next to him.

He screamed which was the sound of vengeance in her ears. She was incredibly pissed off.

"Go ahead and scream all you want. Everyone's off at the new island. That leaves plenty of time for me to torture you with these junk foods if you don't do as I say. Sonia already told me about your mother and I sympathize with you but to kill for her? That's very selfish of you. What if she was alive, and you were executed. How do you think she would feel knowing that her son died because of her. It'd kill her more than any illness."

Hanamura was in a wreck of tears. Haru raised her arms. "C'mere." She hugged him and rubbed his back. "Don't get me wrong. I still don't forgive you or trust you for what you did, so from now on I'll be holding your room key, and I'll be keeping my eye on you so we won't separate until I want to, or when we get off this island. Alright?"

The cook forced out a stuttering yes.

Satisfied with that answer, she turned to Komaeda and ripped off the tape to feel the sting of his skin peeled off. "OW!" Then the male laughed lightly. "Aggressive as usual Haru-chan."

"Shut up, and tell me what's yur illness?"

"Illness?"

"Shut up and tell me your illness."

"Illness?"

"Sonia told me about what you did at the trial. I have experiences in crazy and you definitely are one. But insanity always have something to do will the brain from an illness, so what's yours?"

"You're very perceptive aren't you Haru-chan? Ever since we met, I knew that you would be the Hope who could face Despair. Especially the night that you promised to be the knight who would defeat Monobear at his game. We think very much alike, but I am more of a wothless pawn."

"And your illness is?"

"...Right my illness... I happen to be diagnosed with lymphoma cancer and a severe case of dementia. The doctors said that I am untreatable so may die in a few months or years or so. Isn't that despair-inducing?"

"Tell me about your parents?"

"My parents?" Komaeda was surprised by the question.

"Yeah, tell me or I'll shoved these things in your mouth."

"...Perhaps another time."

"That's all I got to know." She poured some of the chips on the plate. Opened a bottle of soda and put a straw in it. "Eat up if yur hungry."

"That is very kind of you Haru-chan."

"It's a pity gift." She said with a good amount of sass, and then freed Hanamura. "You're coming with me."

"EH?!"

"I'm hungry, too. This is your first step of getting your trust back Hanamura. Make me something." The cook was at lost of words as he followed the soccer player.

The cook used the kitchen restaurant to make all her favorite foods, and more for the others who may come back.

While Hanamura was preparing the food in the kitchen, Haru thought about the current situation. Today was the fourth day that they've been on this island, and yet someone died so quickly that it felt unreal.

She felt like she could expect Twogami and Ibuki walking through those doors and talk to her about their obsessions and quirks.

"It's only natural to feel depression." Someone said. She turned to the person to see her therapist. Her eyes widened. "You're not real." She just watched the door and no one entered. The answer came quickly to her.

"That's right Haru-chan. I'm not real." The person pulled the chair back and sat down. "Brain procedures are a delicate matter. When Hanamura hit you at such a fragile state, your forethought had been scrambled so much that you're beginning to hallucinate me. It's called..."

"...Schizophrenia...with positive symptoms."

"You always wanted to be a psychologist instead of a business owner."

"That's cuz you helped me through a lot. I wanted to do the same, but I... Do you know why I'm here?"

The person smiled sadly. "I'm sorry Haru-chan, but I am merely a figment remember. Only know what you know."

"But you're kind of like my subconscious. You're able to notice things I don't notice at first."

"But why am I really here Haru-chan? Why are you hallucinating me?"

"..."

Togami marched into the room where the pods were. He stood before the data analyst. "What the hell is wrong with her?! She's talking to no one!"

"It's just like Haru-chan said." Kirigiri was with them. "She is developing schizophrenia with positive symptoms. Her symptoms has gotten worse at a disturbingly fast rate."

"What will it lead to?"

"The damages for now are deemed not permanent, but getting out there without pressing the restart button is still unknown. We thought about sending in eight people to do it themselves, but then the virus would only kill them and leave them in a vegetative state like the others."

They looked at Ibuki and Twogami who were still alive but not aware of anything.

"Am I supposed to wait here and watch my fiance' become a whack job or die?!"

"Togami-san." Kirigiri said firmly. "Haru-chan knew the risks, and even if she doesn't remember who she is, she will still fight. We saw her stand with Naegi-kun against Enoshima Junko. She will do that again."

"This isn't the same! Her brain wasn't frying back then!" He took a writing pad and slammed it on the floor. "All of you, do your damn job!"

Hanamura exited from the kitchen with his next dish to hear Haru talking, but when he exited, he saw no one there. "Haru-chan? Who are you talking to?"

"Myself. I need to think aloud to get my thoughts in order." Haru easily lied.

"Smooth." The therapist chuckled.

"Oh. I was worried there for a bit."

"What? Like I'm crazy or anything?" She grinned. "Then you should known better than to attack me again."

"Yes, Haru-chan."

"Oh, and Hanamura, I hate to break it for you but you have to accept the fact that your mother could be dead."

"What?!"

"She could be alive. She could be dead. My parents could be dead, too." She wondered to herself of why that felt like she revealed a secret. She said in reminiscence, "It hurts to think like that, but then my dad told me somethin' when his mother died. 'Her love was the foundation of my dream to own my own sports industry', and you said so yourself that you wanted to take over the restaurant when you go back. You should still look forward to going back and succeeding that restaurant in her honor."

Haru looked like there was glass shattering, and he broke into tears. "Ye-Yes! I will do that! I will get off this island and find her, but...but if she's dead, I'll make sure everyone will know that she was a great mother!"

The soccer player smiled at that. It felt nostalgic for some reason. Then there was a smell of smoke. The cook screamed and tried to salvage the food.

"That's new." The therapist said. "You are inspirational but to be able to give someone unbreaking hope, that is definitely new."

"Yeah. It felt natural."

"Maybe your memories aren't completely gone. A conditioned learning of giving hope that hasn't gone off to extinction yet."

Then the others, except Kuzuryuu as usual, showed up for lunch.

"Haru-chan, you're here. I'm relieved to see that you're still okay." Sonia said, and then Hanamura appeared.

Souda and Nidai screamed. "What is he doing here?!" The mechanic pointed at the cook.

"It's nice to see you, too, guys." Haru responded instead and took a big slurp of freshly made spaghetti with meatballs.

"He's supposed to be tied up! Are you eating his food?!" Nidai questioned.

"Calm down. I have everythin' in control. From now on, this midget is under my watch." She took a gulp of water. "And he didn't poison any of the food, so come take a bite. Oi, make more."

"Ye-Yes!" The cook ran to the kitchen and came out with a tray of freshly made food. "I-I prepared for the others when you planned on coming back!"

"Should we eat it?" Peko questioned.

"...Haru-chan is alive...so it can't be poisoned." Nanami pointed out.

"It's not poisoned! I promised!"

"Quiet you traitor!" Souda shouted out.

"Traitor?!"

"Leave him alone, Souda. I have it all under control." Haru told him.

"But-"

"No buts! Now eat the food or leave!" Haru ordered and everyone felt inclined to, so they hesitate to eat at first, but then once they did, they couldn't stop.

"Haru-chan, are you alright? You found Hanamura-san and Komaeda-san tied up." Sonia asked.

"Yeah, at the lodge in the hall." She responded.

"But they are culprits! Culprits require proper handling!" Nidai defended himself. "And more importantly, they could be the traitors!"

"I'm-"

"Hanamura." She struck him a sharp glare. The cook stayed silent. "Anyway, traitor or not, Hanamura is under my control."

"Ha. He's your little pet isn't he?" Saionji said.

"At least he is under control. But what about Komaeda-san?" Koizumi asked.

"I left him tied up." She responded.

"It's reasonable. That man is dangerous." Peko said.

"He was a bit creepy. I don't mean to insult him or anything." Tsumiki said.

"Indeed, there is no more troubling a presence than a man whose nature you find inscrutable." Gundam said. "What does he like and dislike? What are his goals? How does he approach a problem? What angers him? One takes one's own experience as a standard upon which one bases their expectations of others. When another subverts your expectations. They subvert you. A man with such qualities is a fearsome presence indeed. It is impossible to relate to one such as that."

"He has dementia and lymphoma." Haru responded. Everyone was surprised and a bit lost. "Tsumiki help me out here."

"Ah, me?!"

"You're the health expert but dumb it down, okay."

"U-um, dementia is a loss of brain function that happens with certain diseases. It affects your thinking and behavior. Lymphoma is a blood cancer where the white blood cells are dividing faster than normal cells. Did I do okay?"

"Yes. Thank you Tsumiki." She thanked her. "So that's what's physically wrong with him. Komaeda isn't able to think right, and doesn't have much time to live making him desperate to make his life worthwhile. I'm guessing that he had a terrible childhood that involves his parents which made him feel like complete worthless crap, but when he got accepted into Hope's Peak, he made the school's goal his own goal. His obsession. He wants to be the despair that makes people find their hope."

"What?" Hinata was confused.

"You know how the villain does the things he does just so the hero does his job. Like the joker and batman. The joker only exist so that the batman exist, so there can be a battle between despair and hope."

"Ah yes. The dark demon who flies through the night and defeats evil wherever it shall be." Gundam said. "And the colorful jester who gives a false smile and laughs at his abominable tricks. The clash of society's expectations and the truth forever battling on top of a thin silver lining of truth and justice."

"Excuse me, but who is this Joker and Batman?" Sonia asked.

"You don't know about Batman?!" Souda was greatly surprised.

"Dear ghast woman, what dark hole have you been presiding in to not know of the legend of the dark knight and his colorful jester?!" The goth questioned.

"I'm sorry! I only know so much about Japanese culture!"

"It's not from Japan but that's not the point." Haru said. "The point is that Komaeda is dangerous. He's the type of insane that borders between a psychopath and sociopath, so you should listen to him carefully and not fall for his traps!"

Everyone agreed, and then had the conversation of who was going to feed him. Haru was prepared with the chart and sticks with different colored ends and numbers of who would feed his three meals during the days.

Afterwards, Hanamura was tired since he barely slept so Haru let him into his room, and then locked him in. For the rest of the day she talked to the others about the new island, and discover new things about them.

She couldn't train with Owari due to her injury, so had to settle with playing defense for her attacks as Nidai taught them.

Then she freed Hanamura for dinner, and then let him back in.

She got a hope shard from everyone, except Hinata. She know she should talk to him, but she had that feeling again to not talk to him. She just didn't like him.

"You should kill him." She heard a female's voice. "He just grates on your nerves doesn't he. Upupupupu."

Then Hinata appeared before her. "Hey, can we talk?" He asked awkwardly.

She almost kicked the lights out of him. She realized what she did. "I'm sorry! It's just that I get so angry when I see your face, and I don't understand why!"

"Am I really that repulsive?!"

"No! I.." She took a deep breath reasoning that schizophrenic people always had dark voices in their head, but she didn't recognize but felt familiar with this one. "I'm in control. What do you want?"

"I just wanted to talk, but if you don't want..."

"No. I don't mind. We need to get our hope shards right?" She tried a smiled. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I wanted to tell you that I was kinda impressed earlier."

"Hm?"

"The way you were able to understand Komaeda. How were you able to know that he was sick?"

"I asked him." She decided to be honest for a hope shard. "I have a passion to help people with mental problems."

"Why's that?"

"I know people with mental illnesses. The treatments are getting better, but there are still those who are helpless like Komaeda who just needs some medication from a psychiatrist, or a therapist if it's not as severe as he said. I hope that you'll talk with him more Hinata."

"Me?! Why me?"

"Because you have a similar standing to him. Y'know. The lack of talent, and he sees his talent as useless. It's best for him to talk to someone he doesn't have to put on a show for."

"I...I guess I can see it your way. I'll try."

"Be careful too. He might convince you to murder. I trust you Hinata." She told him honestly. That trust felt like a piece of ice place on her firing heart. It felt wrong and right to trust.

"Yeah, hey Haru-chan. I've been actually meaning to ask you. How do you do it?"

"Huh?"

"I don't know. I guess I'm asking how are you able to have so much hope. You even said it yourself that you might be the one who'll die, but have so much faith in your friends to carry on for you. Do you really believe in them?"

"Do I really come off as hopeful, or are you just imagining it?"

"I...honestly don't know. That's why I'm asking. Where does all that confidence come from?"

The therapist asked, "Where does it come from?"

"...I am a soccer captain!" She grinned with a thumb pointing at her. "I'm suppose to be confident! In the field, it's basically win or die, and I never lost a game ever!"She felt her confidence faltering a bit with that response.

"Is that really the same in our situation?"

"I guess not. I really don't know. For some reason, almost everything I do, I don't understand why I did it. I don't even understand why I kissed Togami?"

"You what?"

"Good night!" Haru ran for her room and locked it. She couldn't believe what she just confessed. She needed to be more careful. Once they're off the island, the others might tell the press about her. She can't have that. Not that she cared. Why is she thinking like this?!

She just wanted to sleep.

And then she remembered Twogami's message. The real Togami? And then remembered that party. "Hmph! Why would I ever be with him? He's just an arrogant jackass."

"And you're an incurable bitch." Togami told her back.

"You need to sleep, too, Togami-kun." Naegi told him.

"Shut up, and leave me alone." He told the man starkly. "Only talk to me when you have a way to get her out of there." He looked at his left hand at his engagement ring. He grasped that hand and then pressed his forehead against them.

Haru lied down on her bed and then closed her eyes. Suddenly she heard voices. Her parents' voices.

"I told you she was unstable. She should go to a mental asylum." Her mother hissed.

"Our daughter is not insane!" Her father voice thundered.

"You know very well that isn't true! She attacked a man which we covered up. Thankfully! Then she attacked a girl from her team. That kind of damage can not be resolved. They won't take our money to keep quiet or change the story. They want her contained!"

"And you think sending her into a mental asylum will help her?"

"At least teach her a lesson. I don't understand why she acts out like this...It's your fault. If she just played tennis, she wouldn't have targets!"

"...Fine. Let's send her to a mental asylum."

"Good." Haru could hear the woman smirk. "I knew you'd see it my way. It would've gone my way any way, since she is my daughter." The woman's heels clacked away.

Haru felt hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry Haru. I'm not sending you away because I don't want you here."

"Then what is this?" She whispered.

"It's for your own good."

"But I'm not insane." She opened her eyes to see no one there. It was quiet. "Hello?"

"Relax." She heard her parents and therapist say. She didn't want to but then felt inclined to, so fell asleep.

The next morning, Haru let Hanamura out of his room, and then have her wounds checked. The scratch to her head healed, but then the cut to her hip needed to be restitched and patched with the possibility of being left as a scar.

Hanamura cried out his apologies which Haru used to have him make her breakfast. Owari got some, too, after asking shamelessly. There were normal conversations while in the same time she could hear people talking behind her.

She recognized the symptoms of schizophrenia and there were no cure, but the least she could do was treat herself medically. She knew the medicine and knew she should confide with Tsumiki about it, but she didn't want to worry anyone.

Then she noticed something off. Souda was talking with Tanaka at a separate table. "What's Souda doin' with Tanaka? I thought he hated the guy." She didn't notice any change yesterday.

"It seems that they bonded over this dark knight and colorful jester yesterday." Sonia replied.

"So instead of keeping Souda away from you, I ended up making him go to Tanaka. Looks like I failed you Sonia."

"Oh not at all! I'm happy that they could become friends! Tanaka told me that Souda was going to help him level up his dark lords' potential."

"If you say so, so what do you plan on doing today?"

"I am going back to the library to read more about Genocider Syo and Kirakira-chan. What're you going to do Haru-chan?"

"Hanamura and I haven't seen the second island yet, so we're heading over there."

So after breakfast, the two went to the second island to find it beautiful. She was told that there was a beach, a restaurant, a library, a pharmacy and a creepy ruin.

The first place she checked was the ruins. It looked strangely familiar. It looked like the Hope's Peak school, and then she saw the door. She approached it despite Hanamura's warnings about the gun. She saw that the door needed a password.

Her hands reached for it, but then stopped. "Don't do it!" The female voice hissed. "Notice the damn gun you idiot!"

Haru looked at the gun and then felt a pinch of fear. She decided not to do it, and looked at the other places. The chef then needed to use the restroom so sent him on his way to the restaurant alone since she found Pekoyama training by herself with her kendo stick on the beach.

"Hey!"

The swordswoman attacked her. Haru met her sword with her leg. "Ah, it's you Takahashi-san."

"That was some killer move you got there." They lowered their weapons.

"I am sorry. You surprised me."

"Then it's my fault. You looked like you were ready for war or somethin'."

"Yes. After seeing your battles with Owari-san, I realized that I should not let myself fall back on my training either."

"There's no need to worry. You're the actual fighter among us. All I learned was soccer."

"But your moves aren't that of a regular soccer player."

Haru knew that too. When she fought with Owari before the incident, she did moves she never did before. "...Fine. I'll admit that I learned a bit of capoeira when I was stayin' at Brazil, but only for dancing reasons. Nothing special."

"Capoiera...I see..."

There was a pause. "So you know kendo?"

"Yes."

"When did you get into it? I got into soccer since I was a three. It was the very first ball my dad bought me for my birthday."

"I had been trained in the way of the sword since I was able to walk. A sword was the first gift placed in my hands in order to protect those who must be protected and cut those who must be cut. That is the true way of the sword. The one I let guide me. It is the very reason I exist."

"Huh. And by those who should be protected, do you mean Kuzuryuu?"

The swordwoman gasped. "How did you know?"

"It's obvious. When I attacked him, you protected him and looked at me like, 'if you dare hurt my precious, I'm gonna mess with ya' thug look." Haru tried to imitate the expression.

The teen was completely red. "He-He's-not-!"

"It's okay if you have a crush on the dude. It's not my problem."

"It's not like that." Peko looked like she was constipated.

"Alright but If you want to date the shortie, you should go for it! I'll support you! You're a warrior right? Just build up your courage n' tell him, 'I like you.', and then give him time to think about his feelings for you. It might make him get taller for all we know!"

"Again, it's not like that. And even if it is, it is not that simple. I must go." The swordwoman ran away.

Haru figured that she pressured the woman, but then it might give her the jump to confess. She heard the annoying voices teasing Peko and then whispered to her, "I can smell the despair on her." And then there was an uncomfortable feeling as if the voice just licked her neck.

"You should give her a spark of your hope." The therapist appeared before her eyes.

"But she's not down or anything."

"Yeah, shut up! She doesn't need you anymore. Right Haru-chan? Your therapist didn't help you at all. That silly advice you followed is the reason you're here. So you wouldn't be a bother to them, or anyone any more. Upupupupu!"

Haru shook her head. "Stupid mental disorder!"

She took a deep hard breath before setting off after getting Hanamura from the bathroom. She and Hanamura spent time with Sonia at the library to learn about other psychopathic killers.

Then they played a board game with Nanami. The teen was slow as ever to talk but she was fast when playing games. They talked about normal things like Nanami's obsession with games that Haru worked with to discuss about virtual soccer games, and Hanamura talked about pornographic and food games.

Nothing weird happened, but Haru felt like they had to discuss about something. Something important but nothing came to mind, so ignored it and then left after the discussion and game ended.

Next, they talked with both Koizumi and Saionji at the first island beach. Saionji was rude as ever but hadn't been giving Tsumiki much trouble which had her turn to Souda for her bullying. She found it fun scary the guy by the faces he make. Koizumi eagerly talked with her and tried to convince Haru to be the new leader, but was denied.

"Boy, you really don't want to be the leader, huh?" Koizumi was saddened by her answer. They were sitting down on the sand while Saionji was busy bullying/playing with Hanamura.

"Sorry, but I didn't come here to boss people around. Like Sonia, I want to be everyone's equal."

"I see now. I understand. Sorry for pushing you."

"No need! No pressure at all. Any Koizumi, what got you into photographing?" Haru was curious.

The red head blushed. "It's kind of embarrassing. You see, my mother is a famous photographer."

"I don't see what's so embarrassing about that. I got into sports because my dad was. It's good to be passionate!" Haru gave a dazzling smile that made the red head feel even more awkward.

"But being Super High school Level Photographer is stupid compared to you guys own."

"Now what type of talk is that!" Haru snapped. "Sonia told me that if it weren't for your map made by your pictures, we wouldn't have been able to know what happened!"

"Yeah, but-"

"No buts! You shouldn't look down at your gift for being able to capture history! Just like the one with the sailor kissing the woman, or know how people actually looked like! It takes someone with great angle and perspective to really give it a wow factor, and not some sleezy photoshopped one! Let's take pictures right now!" She grabbed her hand, and played on the island with Koizumi's camera to capture a lot of photos with the other people on the island without them noticing.

They got pictures of Nidai and Owari training. One of Sonia reading, Nanami playing, Peko training. Souda in Tanaka's room having a break from tinkering with the cage to add new toys.

They also got playful pictures of themselves being silly. Then Haru took a look at the pictures. "It looks like you mostly have pictures of the girls."

"That's because girls are more prettier on camera then men."

"I can't argue with you on that when most media are based on woman's appearances."

"...Thank you Haru-chan."

"Hm?"

The girl blushed happily. "You really made me see why it's important to be a photographer. When we get off this island, I'll send you these pictures."

"No problem. We're friends after all." They gave each other smiles which made Saionji really jealous that she grabbed the photographer and spouted death threats and malicious words at the soccer player.

Haru rolled her eyes, and her and Hanamura went off to do something else. It was still quite early. She thought about fulfilling her hope shards, but she thought about abandoning the idea about spending time with Kuzuryuu since she wasn't ready for his attitude, and Komaeda who was tied up.

She didn't feel like ruining a mood by how depressing he was.

She could talk to Hinata but then felt like completely avoiding him at all cost again. Then she decided to just go for a run. She had Hanamura on her shoulders as she did, but then to her surprise, she turned around and found Kuzuryuu behind her.

"Whoa! A leprechaun!"

"Who the fuck do you think your callin' a leprechaun, you bitch?!"

"A guy with a temper as short as him. Why don't you drink milk or somethin'?"

"Fuck you! Don't you dare say that word again or I'll kill you!"

"What? Milk?" The girl snorted.

"You're laughing?!"

"How can I not? Let me guess. You're lactose n' tolerant."

The little guy growled. "So what?! It's none of yur damn business!"

"It's alright. I had a teammate who was lactose n' tolerant, too, and she was an ice cream lover, so I kinda get what you're going through."

"Who said I wanted your understanding?! Leave me alone." He ordered but the soccer player ignored that.

"But if that's what's gettin' you down, then Hanamura knows other ways of makin' you tall. Right?"

"Oui! I have made food for people with special problems to make sure they still get the nutrients they need and the flavor they want! Especially for the ones who want to feel hot and heavy."

"I-I never said I needed your help!"

"Stop with the jackass attitude, and come. It's almost dinner anyway, n' you have a habit of avoiding others, so let's take this opportunity." Haru grabbed him by the hand and practically dragged him to the restaurant where Hanamura ran ahead to the kitchen to prepare them something.

Finally at the restaurant after struggling and dragging, Kuzuryuu finally freed his hand. His arm almost felt like it was pulled from his socket. "Don't treat me like I'm some pet of yours! You're really gonna get it."

"Blah! Blah! Just relax." She sat down. "Anyway, I wanted to ask of what do you think about Pekoyama."

"Huh? Why?" Kuzuryuu sounded nervous.

Haru grinned. "She's very pretty isn't she? And really cool with her sword."

"What the hell are you gettin' at?" the male sat down.

"Nothing! I just wanted to know your opinion on Pekoyama! She told me that she likes someone."

"Li-Likes someone?" Kuzuryuu looked shocked and then envious, "Who is this asshole?! If he hurts her, I'm gonna kill him!"

"You really don't know?'

"Don't know about what? Tell me you fucker!"

Then Hanamura came out with a plate of karintos. "Here's the Hors d'oeuvre! It said on Kuzuryuu's profile that these are his favorites, so I made some!"

"Good job Hanamura." Haru petted him like a puppy. "Now go on."

"Yes Haru-chan!"

"You...You really made him your slave." Kuzuryuu thought about how more docile the cook was.

"He does feel guilty for almost killing me. About Pekoyama, what do you seriously think of her."

"It's none of your damn business of what I think of her." The teen tried to not look like he enjoyed the karintos, but they were gone before the soccer player could even get one. "Hey shitty cook! Make more of these!" He ordered, and the cook came out with more.

Haru sighed knowing that she won't get anything out of the twerp so prayed that Peko had luck with him. The guys were so difficult here, so she switched conversations. "You're the heir of the Kuzuryuu clan huh. Must be a stressful job."

"What the fuck would you know?"

"I happen to be the heiress of a multibillion dollar industries, but it's nothing compared to having a shady business."

"Heh. What makes you think your business isn't shady? All great businesses become so great through clans like mine in the first place."

"I'll remember that. Have a card?"

"Do I look like I carry a fuckin' card?"

There was a moment of silence, and then Hanamura exit with their food. He said their foreign names that Haru didn't bother to remember.

"And to add with it," The cook dimmed down the lights and lit up candles on the table. Slow music was playing in the background.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Kuzuryuu shouted.

"Now you kids enjoy! Oh hohohohoho!" The cook ran into the kitchen.

"Di-Did you fuckin' planned this?" The teen was seriously blushing.

Haru snorted. "Yeah, like I want a date with a gangster. Just ignore it and eat. Consider this as a practice date for a special someone. Someone who happens to know how to fight with a sword."

"I-I don't need a practice date for anythin'!"

"Your future wife will appreciate them. And by wife, I mean a girl who happened to wear eye glasses too. Just sayin'." Haru hoped the guy was gettin' the hints. She could be straightforward about this, but she wasn't one for gossipping. She hated that.

"...Hmph." The gangster was uncomfortable but the food was worth it. They talked about the food for a bit with Haru making dating jokes that got the yakuza blushing mad.

Then the conversation got serious with work.

"It sucks to grow up. Work and all that. Do you really want to take over the clan? I don't mind taking over my dad's work, but my mom's... they're really heartless people. My mom has no conscience of flirty with other guys in front of her own family unlike my dad. At least he tried to keep it private..."

"You should take over whatever company you want, n' not care for shit of what anyone tells you."

"True. But people are depending on me. I can't just selfishly run away."

Then there was an announcement by Monobear to meet at the park and the first one would get curry.

Haru got up and called Hanamura to follow by getting on her shoulders. She looked to Kuzuryuu who was still taking his time eating. "Aren't you coming?"

"Kuzuryuu." Pekoyama appeared. "Ah, Haru-chan...Am I interrupting something?"

"Nope! We were just having a practice date for his real date."

"Re-real date?"

"He's still not aware, but I'm sure his future wife would get him to." Haru winked at her making the swordwoman blush.

"I-I don't now what you're talking about! We must leave now!"

The four of them left to the park to find Owari there first. Monobear came out to tell them about a new game called 'Twilight Syndrome Murder Mystery' that he installed in order to give them a motive. Everyone said that they shouldn't play the game, but it was obvious that they would out of curiosity.

Like the saying, 'Curiosity killed the cat'.

"What do you think Haru-chan?" Sonia asked her. "Do you think we should play the game or not?"

"You can't actually be thinking about playin'!" Souda said no. "It'll give us nothin' but trouble!"

"But if we were to know beforehand of what this motive is, we will know why we are the prey, if not distinguish the hunter." Gundam said.

"Don't listen to him!" Souda panicked. "I don't wanna know!"

"Be calm tinkering one. You have my word that nothing, even if the motive is directed at me, will I let anyone hurt you. This I promise you."

"Screw your promises! I don't want anything to do with this!" He ran away.

"Looks like someone doesn't trust his boyfriend." Saionji said.

"What do you think Haru-chan?" Koizumi asked.

"Why are you guys asking me?"

Then Monobear said it was time for bed.

"Haru-chan?" Sonia looked to her.

Haru looked at the game and thought of the strategies. "No. The others will play the game anyway by tomorrow or the next days. Eventually everyone will know. The only thing we should do is never leave someone you inevitable trust."

"Y-you really think one of us will kill the other!" Tsumiki was in disbelief.

"It's reality. We need to face it in order to survive. Don't think of who to not trust. Be with someone that you can. Right now we should all go to sleep." She walked away, and let Hanamura in his room.

"Do you really think that someone is going to kill again?" The cook asked in fear.

"There's nothin' to worry about. We won't be separated for any other reason that going to bed and the bathrooms. Plus I won't play that stupid game, so go to bed." Haru patted his back to go in before she locked the door.

She left to her own room, and lied down. She thought about the turn of events. She looked at her electroID at everyone's info and her own. She gave out a heavy sigh as she placed the device on her chest.

She wanted to sleep but the voices wouldn't shut up. They didn't really made sense. It was like white noise being made.

Unable to handle it anymore, she waited about an hour before heading out to the other island to the pharmacy where she took the medications given to schizophrenics. She was aware of most of the side effects, but she really wanted the voices to stop.

She took the rest of the medications she needed to her room, and hid them in her closet under her clothes. She'll need to find a bag to hide them so she could take them in intervals.

The next day, Haru woke up and remembered last night. She looked around the room and saw that her hallucinations weren't acting up so she got off of bed, and let Hanamura out who got on her shoulders.

She spent breakfast with the others who were careful not to mention the game at all. Haru thought it'd be a good time for Sonia to try to get Tanaka's attention back.

First, she left Hanamura on his own to get back the trust he lost two days ago, and she didn't want him to know about the medication that she was taking from her room.

Then she went with Souda on a walk along the beach.

"So last night, Tanaka made a promise to you." She grinned.

"It was nothing! He was just tryin' to act high and mighty! The bastard." He grumbled, but looked happy. "I bet he was just tryin' to impress Sonia-san!"

"Or Sonia-san likes him. Sorry bro, but the girl told me herself."

"Wha..." The guy began to get teary in denial. "Bullshit! He's a fuckin' weirdo! Who would ever like a guy like that?!"

"A girl who happens to be a fan of psychopaths and thinks his hamsters are cute."

"So it was his hamsters! That's the last time I'm ever doin' a favor for that bastard!"

"Calm down. I'm not even sure Tanaka even likes Sonia. From what I see, he takes a liking to you."

"Wha-what?! A-are you tellin' me he-he's gay?"

"No, but you seriously never met a gay person before?"

"Uh no. Not that I'm against them or anythin', but I'm targeted?! I knew that I looked fine as hell, but I didn't want to attract that kind of attention! Haru-chan, you gotta help me!"

"You mean keep you away from Tanaka?"

"Yes! I don't want t-to deal with that!"

"Deal with what?"

"You know what!"

"You gotta make it clear for me." She seriously didn't know.

"Grrrgnh, you're gonna make me say it...I don't wanna..."

"Realize you're gay too?"

"No! I am not gay! Definitely not! No way! One-hundred percent straight! I like boobs, man!"

"Ooookay. But if you want to avoid Tanaka, then that means avoiding Sonia because she will be with him."

"Right. So I really don't have a chance with her if I don't want that weirdo to have a chance with me. Not that he ever had the chance! But if he isn't...tell me okay."

Haru didn't comment on that pause, so just continued her day like usual. She trained with Nidai and Owari. She talked with the others including Kuzuryuu getting her hope shards. Except with Hinata or Komaeda.

And then Sonia came up with the best plan of having an all girl beach party. Haru decided that she could let Hanamura roam free for a bit without her again.

Later that day, she came across Koizumi who seemed depressed. "What's wrong Koizumi? Saionji tiring you down?"

"Yeah." The photographer looked like she really didn't want to talk, but Haru was always the stubborn type.

"You can talk to me if you want to. I didn't play the game."

"...Shouldn't Hanamura be with you?"

"Gave him free time. I trust him, and he needs to work for the trust of you guys without me. I'll have to let him in his room soon."

"You should probably get him now. To make sure that he isn't causing any trouble."

"Yeah, but this is more important. What's wrong?" Haru pushed the conversation gently.

"...I rather not talk about it right now...but Haru-chan, you said that some of us will die, but you believe in your friends to win for you. Is winning that important to you?"

She raised her eyebrows and then gave a brave smile. "To make my words clear, I don't intend on making someone kill me that easily, but if I died, then I want vengeance for my death. Not against who killed me, but the person who pushed us, and that's Monobear! As long as the person hurting us is stopped and can't do it anymore, then I'll die in peace, and everyone'll have their closure."

"But aren't you scared?"

"Yes. Who wouldn't other than people like Komaeda?...If it's the game that's worrying you, then stay close to someone you trust. If you trust me, I swear that I'll protect you."

"You will?"

"Yeah, we're friends aren't we?"

"...Yeah. Thanks Haru-chan." Koizumi gave her a pleasant smile.

"Then you'll come to the beach party with us?"

"I would love to, but... I'm just not feeling well."

"Alright." Haru placed a hand on her shoulder. "But if you change your mind, you'll know where we'll be. G'night."

"Good night."

She went back to the cabin where Hanamura was waiting for her. "Hey, how was your day?"

"It was good. I got to talk a lot with the others but some of them avoided me." He told her.

"They'll come around someday."

"You really think so?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah. Though it might be when we're off the island."

"Oh..." She let the cook in and then when to her own cabin where she was going to take her medication but then she heard her mother's voice behind her.

"I can't believe my daughter is hanging out with these people!"

"It's her choice." Her father said.

"It's best to have a diversity of friends." Her therapist agreed.

"A diverse friends of killers. It's really funny that you think we're alive." The female voice laughed.

"What?" She turned back and saw that she was all alone at the park. There was ashes flying all around her and then there she saw a bloodied hand on her shoulder.

Everyone screamed, "Behind you!" Haru kicked back to find that it was Hinata who fell back on his butt.

"This is the one you're angry at. It's his fault." The female voice told him.

"Ha-Haru-chan..." Hinata was frightened.

"You know deep down that this is all his fault. He's the reason you're in this mess." Another unknown male voice told her.

"How?"

"I-I wasn't sneaking up on you! I just wanted to talk!"

"Don't listen to him." More unknown voices told her. " He's the enemy. If it weren't for him, none of this would have happen. Everything!"

"What happened?" Haru questioned.

"What do you mean what happened?!" The untalented guy was confused.

"He doesn't have a talent right?" Her therapist whispered to her. "But you know deep down what it is."

She felt hands on her shoulders with nails pressing on her skin. Lips pressed against her ear.

"It's just a chemical imbalance in the brain." Haru told herself.

"Haru-chan, what's wrong?" Hinata asked.

Then Haru heard the female voice whisper into her ear, "SHSL Despair."

"Shut up! Leave me alone!" She ran to her room and got out her medication.

She swallowed them and then sat down on her bed trying to ignore the voice that turned into many voices.

"He's the reason we're in this mess!"

"If he didn't help that bitch, none of this would happen!"

"I didn't want to die!"

She could hear someone singing. She could hear a ball rolling. She could hear the menacing thumping of something about to smash her her death. She could feel the piercing of a knife to her stomach and scissors into her heart. And then they were all screaming.

"STOP!

"It's not just him. It's all of them. My father had a dream to help them al,l but they betrayed him. And now he's dead. They all deserve to die."

She fell back on her bed as if she was dropped into water as the sound of splashing entered her ears. She suffocated until she got off her bed, and gasped huge gulps of air.

"This isn't normal!" She rasped. "It's suppose to be just images and voices! Why am I feeling all this?!"

"Because you experienced all this." Her therapist appeared before her. Approached her, yet turned into someone else with long black hair and red eyes. "And you're just dreaming." He grabbed her throat and squeezed the life out of her.

Haru sharply gasped when she woke up. The monitor went on to let her know that it was a new day. She looked around her room and saw her medication on the floor. The pills laid scattered.

Togami was immensely worried. "It's inflammation to the brain sir. It appeared as schizophrenia at first, but has now become a symptom similar to encephalitis. We checked strictly with the previous data to see that the virus had already taken effect to Takahashi-san's system before Monobear appeared. Her brain was suppose to explode, but then due to the memory erased, the virus has been nearly deleted with it, but now plays as a virtual infection to her brain." One of the scientists explained.

"Is there any way to cure her?"

"There are only two ways. One impossible, and the other risky."

"Tell me." The blonde was prepared for the worse.

The scientist nodded. "...The one impossible at the moment is for at least eight of them entering the ruin, and restarting the game. The other is for her to die, and then try to bring her back."

"Either way, we can't control the situation." Togami grimaced. "Tch. Even with the highest level of technology, we are still useless. Is Fujisaki-san coming any time soon?"

"No sir. He hasn't finished his mission of deleting all of Monobear's viruses throughout the world with his team. There seems to still be more followers keeping the virus in active to further destroy both cyber and the real world."

"Leave." The man ordered. He looked at the screen at Haru who was picking the pills off the floor.

"If you haven't erased her memory," Kirigiri said, "The virus would've completely deleted not only memory, but also destroy the rest of her nerves having completely killed her here in the real world. You made the right choice Togami-san."

"I'm a fool. I should've stopped her. Everything would've have ended well enough without her having to suffer for it."

Haru put her medication back into the drawer, and then checked the time to see that she woke up an hour early, so worked out and then got ready. She freed Hanamura and then went for breakfast to find Tanaka on his way there. "Hey Tanaka, can I talk to you?"

"What is it that you wished to speak to me, mortal?"

"I'll be very straightforward with you. What are your feelings on Souda?"

"Are you speaking of the tinkering one?"

"Yeah. You made a rather big promise to him yesterday."

The therapist appeared. "A promise to protect someone dear."

"You two just bonded about two days ago."

"Ah yes. I only made such a promise to the mortal for inventing glorious devices for my Dark Gods of Destruction."

Then the goth continued to talk funny. The therapist turned into her father. "He's very eccentric." He laughed. A laugh she hadn't heard in a while. She figured that her dream didn't go with her hallucinations in reality. "He would've been great as a professional trainer for pet shows. You always loved that part of my work. When I had meetings with the trainers, and you'd play and admire their pets."

"I once had a butterfly." Haru didn't mean to talk out loud.

"A butterfly, you say." Gundam heard. "Tell me what species was your magnificent winged creature!"

"She was a monarch!" Haru saved herself from appearing weird. "I wanted a puppy but my mother advised against it, or more like forbid me. Thought that it'd only distract me from my studies, so my aunt, who's an entomologist, gave me a butterfly instead."

"I see. And this aunt of yours, does she control these boundless creatures by her own will?"

"No. She just analyzes them in controlled environments, but nothing harmful."

They entered the restaurant and Hanamura prepared them breakfast. Haru sat next to Souda, and was whispered, "So?"

"So?"

"You know!" He hissed in a whisper. "Does...Does he like me?"

"Oh that! No. It was just a misunderstanding."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. He is full of himself so making a promise that bold shouldn't be a surprise."

"Oh good. I was worried there. Whoo! Now I can relax!...Yeah..."

Haru gave a pitying smile to the mechanic, and then had a good breakfast. There was the beach party to think about, but she was also worried about Koizumi. She tried looking for her while talking to the others to build her hope shards, but then she couldn't find her. She tried her room first but there was no reply or answer.

She tried asking Saionji but the girl suspiciously rebuffed her before running away. So she decided to go look at the second island after changing to a two-piece black bikini, and then leaving Hanamura to stay at the first.

Haru didn't find her there either. She figured that she has been searching at all the wrong places, or that Koizumi was at her room after all and wouldn't answer.

She felt like she failed as a friend. She took a break at the beach where they were suppose to meet. it was almost two when she got there.

She didn't swim yet, so just lied down on the lounge chairs with the umbrella blocking her from the sun.

"You're already here Haru-chan?" Sonia appeared with a wet suit on. The girls had chosen their swim suits yesterday. The princess sat next to her.

"Oh Sonia. What are you doing here so early?"

"I wanted to talk to you. Hanamura-san told me that you were heading over here to look for Koizumi-san. Did you find her?"

Haru sighed in frustration. "No. She seemed really down last night, and I wanted to cheer her up again."

"Oh dear. Is she truly sick? Perhaps we should cancel and schedule for another time."

"Maybe we should. Should we go back and tell the girls or wait for them here?"

"I think we should wait here for them. It'd be easier than rounding them up."

"You're right...Sonia, can I tell you something?"

"Of course you can. We're friends Haru-chan. I'm always here for you." Haru looked at the princess to see that reassuring smile. The girl placed her hands on hers. The bluenette could feel the heat resonating from her palm onto the back of her hand.

She looked up at the umbrella. "I'm sick Sonia-san. Monomi took our memories, and I don't if you guys are having any problems, but I'm seeing and hearing things I shouldn't be hearing or seeing. I'm also feeling things I shouldn't be feeling. Even in my dreams. Sometimes I think it wasn't a dream at all. We sleep but...it's not sleep at all. Just a coma we put ourselves into." She looked at Sonia who looked worried for her. "Do you know that patients knocked out during surgery and those under a coma or something like it isn't actually sleeping. They're just laying there waiting to be turned on. They hear what we say, and remember it. That's why they are so tired when they wake up even if they haven't been awake. Alert." She looked away. "...I feel so tired, but I cannot sleep."

"It sounds like you want to die in peace."

She looked to Sonia again to find her gone.

She sat up looking everywhere only to realize that this entire time she was talking to a figment that felt real. Completely real.

Yet, she felt calm. Emotionless. She thought about the words of wanting to die in peace which was frightening, but then they sounded soothing.

She got up and ran into the water having the small particles of sand fly off behind her as her feet were leaping away from the sinking sand. She felt the cool water beneath her feet on the shore until she dived right into it and grabbed the soft cold sand.

The water was so clear that she could see everything, but there was nothing but blue all around her, the sand that was flowing away from her hand like dust clouds, and the sun sparkling above the surface of the water.

Bubbles came out of her mouth and nose. She expelled larger bubbles and stayed beneath the cool water that began to feel warmer.

And then she found herself standing in front of the restaurant completely wet from her swim. Everyone's words were slow to her until Monobear announced that a body was found.

Everyone was shocked except her who was still trying to grasp how she ended up here instead of the ocean. She noticed that Pekoyama was also wet from swimming from the first island.

"Haru-chan, are you alright?" Sonia asked worriedly.

"Sonia...Were you at the beach earlier?"

"No I was not. I came right here before going to the beach, and you came afterwards. Souda just left to get us parasols and such for our beach party at the beach house. Why do you ask?"

"...I thought I saw you, but I must've saw someone else. We should go find who was killed?"

"I don't think I can go."

Haru grabbed Sonia's hand. The princess's hand felt warm. The very heat resonating each other's palms. Only reassuring a terrifying discovery. "Our lives depend on it."

They guessed that it was the beach house since Souda was heading that way. They were correct. They found Koizumi's body against the door with her head bashed in.

She didn't waste time inspecting the body, and the place around. Outside, she looked out at ocean that she just swam in.

From the file, it was happening while she was at the beach talking to an imaginary Sonia. Her heart clenched realizing that she could've saved Koizumi, only had she...not been delusional.

On her investigation, a lot of clues seemed completely off. From Tsumiki's discovery of Koizumi's blow being instant, the gummy bear, seeing Owari and Hinata discover that the window in the shower room was escapable, and the note.

"Haru-chan, If you're not well, it's okay if you stop. We can rely on our friends to figure out who killed Koizumi-san themselves." Sonia told her.

"...I should. Tell the others that I'll be in my room." Haru went for her room to meet Hanamura on the way.

"Haru-chan! What happened?!" The cook asked helplessly.

"Koizumi-san was murdered." Haru said bluntly. "The others will fill you in on the details. I need...time alone. And here." The girl put the key in the cook's hand. There was a moment of hesitance when she doubted that she was giving it to the real Hanamura but the key didn't drop when she let go. "It's early n' all, but I'm not feeling well, n' I can't keep you locked out of your room, so please be good Hanamura..."

"Haru-chan?" Hanamura was concerned for her lifeless attitude. The girl just left into her room and looked for her medication. It was too early, but then figured that she was taking too low a dose, so she put twice the more medications into her system.

She had a short nap before she was told by Monobear to head to the court room. Having never been there, she didn't know where to go, so called out to Monomi.

"I'm here!" The bunny appeared cheerfully.

"Oi, rodent. Where's the damn trial taking place?" She asked rudely.

"Eh? You don't know?"

"Almost bled to death rememb'r. Just show me where it is?" She began walking. Monomi quickly led her to where it was.

Then she saw the hideous Monobear rock. Souda encountered her first.

"Hey Haru-chan, Sonia-san told me that you went to yer room cuz you weren't feelin' good. Is everythin' alright."

Haru was honestly getting tired of being asked that, so she answered, "I'm fine. Koizumi's death shook me so badly that I needed time alone."

"It didn't only shake you. It shook me, too. I'm not prepared for this at all!"

"Souda..." Haru felt an uncomfortable part of her trying to reach out. She forced a smile, and held his hand. "Despite everything, we're innocent right. There's still hope for us."

"...I guess yer right."

"That's the spirit Haru-chan!" Komaeda told her. "There's always hope inside us!"

"Shut up you mental patient!" Souda shouted at him.

"Ha. Ha. Mental patient. So Haru-chan did tell you. No wonder everyone was more nice than expected..."

Then they went to the trial room where the discussion started. Haru wasn't listening because she didn't want to.

She thought she had ahold of her illness, but now she understood the delicateness of what was real and fake when your brain can trick you. She thought about finally telling Tsumiki to help her.

But what if she couldn't and everyone knew that she was bound to be insane just like Komaeda. Then that would mean being secluded from everyone.

She thought back to her childhood of when all her teammates rejected her. Not a single friend to trust or anyone to comfort her. Just alone...

"Haru-chan!" Hinata called out to her.

"Huh?"

"You weren't listening at all?" The teen was surprised as everyone else was.

"...Sorry. I dozed off. What were we talking about?"

"You weren't listening the entire time?!" Sonia was greatly surprised. "Haru-chan, Hinata-san had just accused you for killing Koizumi-san!"

"It's not her!" Souda defended.

"But it was Haru-chan who admitted to having been at the second beach while Pekoyama-san was at the first beach." Komaeda pointed out.

"Haru-chan..." Hinata faced her. "It's you, isn't it?"

"Why do you think that?"

"I remembered how you appeared when you arrived at the diner for the beach party. If the culprit had washed their entire body with bottled water, it would be strange if they were dry. There were no towels at the beach house, and it would have taken too much time to dry in the sun. You attempted to cover it up by telling us you went for a swim, didn't you?" Hinata summed it up.

"S-Say something Haru-chan! Don't just stand there with your mouth shut!" Souda shouted at her.

Haru was silent for a moment as she heard the voices in her head again. Telling her to let them die with her. No reason to live. No reason at all.

"Wait! Then how did she get out of the beach house in the first place!" Sonia pointed out. "It must be the work of Kirkira-chan! Not Haru-chan!"

"Yeah! How the hell could she get out?!" Souda agreed.

"If both the tunnel-side door and the beach-side door were impossible, there'd only be one option left. The window in the shower room." Hinata pointed out.

"But isn't that window too high?" Akane questioned. "Even if someone were to help her, the other guy would've been left behind."

There was silence. Nobody wanted to accuse her. She was miss sunshine who lightened up their days. If only they knew what was wrong with her. The voices continued to tell her to lead them astray but then fear told her not to.

"I couldn't have gotten out. Nobody could've been there to support me out of the window, and I couldn't have used any tools that I would've left behind and throw away later." Haru reasoned. Then she heard the voices tell her to admit to the killer. "It was Pekoyama-san."

"Pekoyama-san?" Hinata was surprised by the accusation.

"Wait a second, you bitch! She was swimming at the first beach! You were at the second beach when the murder was committed!"

"And I was taking an actual swim. A lot of things can happen while I was underwater. The problem was that no matter how you look at it, I couldn't have gotten out of the beach house without using the tunnel or using support. There's also the fact that it takes three people excluding the killer for an announcement that a body was discovered. Saionji and Souda saw it which left a last one to discover it."

"That's right. It could've only been Kuzuryuu." Hinata pointed out.

"Wait, if it's Pekoyama-san, then how did she escape?" Owari questioned.

"By her sword obviously while using the bag tied to it in order to retrieve it. She was wearing it when we got back and was also wet like me."

"But nobody saw her coming from the beach house!" Kuzuryuu said.

"And no one saw her swimming either."

"And he admit to having saw no one on his way to the hotel."

"And don't bother vouching to have seen her swimming. You said earlier that you didn't see anyone coming back to the hotel."

"So you were listening you bitch!"

"The sword."

"And Pekoyama-san had a tool unlike me to get out. Her sword. She used it as a spring board and then used her sword bag's cord to get it out."

"The motive. The game."

"And her motive is loud and clear to me."

"You even know her motive!"

"Why shouldn't I? I wasn't completely not listening. Hehehehe!" She gave a big murderous smile. "Do you really think I'd be fooled by the whole mask that you would lie about being some serial killer?"

"She must be joking! Gwuhahahaha!"

"She's even a more abomination than me!"

"You're a joke to all serial killers everywhere! Did you even process the fact that Kirakira-chan's article was Spanish, and darlin', you are no Spanish chick!"

"Ha-Haru-chan?"

"Don't stop me now Hinata! You had your fun the last trial but this is mine!"

"F-Fun?!"

"The motive! The reason that Pekoyama did all this was all for Kuzuryuu! In the game, it was Kuzuryuu's sister who died, and he wanted to do something about it so wanted to talk with Koizumi, right? It's such an obvious choice! It would've ended quietly but she had to open her mouth! Didn't she Kuzuryuu?! So you reached for the bat and wanted to kill her, but you couldn't could you? You were just too soft. I met gangsters who's way shorter but with tougher hearts than you! So who's better for the job than someone who's been trained to hurt people since she was a baby! Pekoyama!"

"Shu-Shut up!"

"Face it Kuzuryuu! Cuz you were such a wimp, someone else had to take the bullet for you. Cuz you were so weak and scared, that even if it was Koizumi, who tried to prevent your sister's death justice, you couldn't kill. So it had to be someone else that you cared about left to die for you like a true gang leader."

"ENOUGH!" Pekoyama shouted. Kuzuryuu was in tears as he fell to his knees. "I took the bat away from him because it was an order he gave me because I am his tool and nothing else."

"Wait! What is this talk about tool?!" Nidai shouted. "YOU'RE CLEARLY HUMAN!"

"And I still don't get it. What was the motive?! She killed Koizumi-san for Kuzuryuu-san?" Sonia asked.

"You seriously didn't get me? Damn you guys are slow." Haru was greatly disappointed.

"You shouldn't be surprised by these planktons."

"The motive was that Pekoyama wanted Kuzuryuu out of this island." She responded.

"Bu-But how can she do that i-if she's the killer?" Tsumiki asked.

"Good question! Why not let the 'tool' talk?"

Pekoyama explained to them that she wasn't human but a mere tool at Kuzuryuu's disposal. Just like the swordswoman wielding the sword, it is the swordswoman who committed the act. Not the sword.

In this case it was Kuzuryuu who committed the act, and not Pekoyama that would've gotten them to be all wrong about their vote.

Souda tried to decline the idea, but then the girl said so that they didn't understand the world that she's been raised in. People like her.

"What is she talking about, Kuzuryuu-kun?" Chiaki asked the gangster.

"...Me and Pekoyama were raised together ever since we were kids." He responded.

"Then doesn't that mean you two are childhood friends." Hanamura said.

Pekoyama retorted that she was abandoned by her parents when she was born to be adopted by the Kuzuryuu family. She was only saved to be Kuzuryuu's property. Kuzuryuu clarified that she was taken in to be his hitman.

Then the swordwoman clarified that before she was human, she was the guy's tool, and will fulfill that role to her last breath.

Sonia couldn't accept that. She questioned about the time they had together. Pekoyama responded that it was nothing. Just an act she pulled for her young master's order. They hid their past together for the fact that Kuzuryuu hated relying on his family's power which included her.

With the tool speech, they began buying the whole tool speech. Kuzuryuu explained the events that he tried to figure out if the pictures were real, but then everything went as Haru said.

"But who do we chose? Pekoyama or Kuzuryuu?" Owari was deeply confused.

"Pekoyama obviously." Haru responded.

"Chose that if you wish, but you will be wrong."

"Not likely. Did you even asked Monobear if that whole tool speech counts?" There was no response from the swordwoman. "Yo bear."

The bear woke up. "Huh?"

"You finally woke up!" Monomi pointed out.

"Does that tool speech even count?"

"Hm? I don't know. Let's see the overall votes and let's see what we decide!" The bear announced.

"What the heck?! That's not fair!" Souda shouted.

"What nonsense is this?!" Tanaka was bewildered.

"It's not my job to find the culprit! It's yours! So let's the voting begin!"

"I have something to say." Haru interrupted.

"Eh?"

"To Pekoyama."

"Don't you think you've said enough!" Kuzuryuu shouted.

"It's about this tool business..." Haru could hear a voice talking to her. "For a tool, you are very selfish."

"...What do you mean?"

"What you're doing is suicide right?" Haru smiled sadly. "Che, you must be really a tool to not realize what you are doing. If in the end, Kuzuryuu didn't consider you a tool at all, and you're leaving him in this unforgiving world, he'll be all alone, won't he?"

She could feel the female's lips against her ear. "It's despairingly selfish."

"That is really selfish...Unless Kuzuryuu really sees you as a tool. Then that'd mean that he's the killer. So which is it Kuzuryuu? Either choice, she'll be dead anyway, so what's your last opinion of her?"

Kuzuryuu was at a lost of words. Everyone began badgering him with questions and conclusions until he finally came up with an answer.

"I'm sorry Peko. I can't do it." He responded. He couldn't accept living without her.

"So let the voting begin!"

And everyone else voted for Pekoyama having gotten the answer right.

Haru stopped listening afterwards. She knew Kuzuryuu and Peko were having their goodybye as Monobear was announcing her death.

Rewinding what she did, she realized that she really did get out of hand. After Pekoyama's death, she immediately went to her room and locked herself inside. She took the last of the medications into her body, and then lied on her bed wanting to go to sleep. But just fell into the darkness.

A/N: I like keeping track of days.

Day 4 - New Island, Day 5 - Game introduced, Day 6 - Game played, Day 7 - Koizumi killed.


	4. Hope! Despair! I just wanna be in love!

A/N:

Alive (13): Haru, Sonia, Souda, Tanaka, Owari, Nidai, Kuzuryuu, Saionji, Hinata, Komaeda, Tsumiki, Hanamura and Nanami.

Dead (4): Mioda, Twogami, Koizumi and Pekoyama

Chapter 4: Hope! Despair! I just wanna be in Love!

Haru woke up when she heard her door bell rung, and there was a knock. She ignored it contemplating on whether to die now or die starving.

"Haru-chan! I bought you something delicious to eat since you missed dinner! Not that anyone could eat after what happened." Hanamura shouted. "Please open the door!...Haru-chan." He sobbed.

Unable to leave him out there like a kicked puppy, she opened the door and let him in. "Why did you make me something so early? Monobear hasn't even told us to wake up yet?" She questioned annoyed.

"I'm sorry, but you immediately locked yourself after what happened, so you must be hungry." The male looked for somewhere to place the food.

Haru took it and ate it to check if the food was real. If anything, madness hasn't reached the point where she can fake eating something. Hanamura also had a bottle of water ready for her to drink.

So she was having a real moment with the cook who was standing there waiting for her to finish.

After eating it up, she set it on her nightstand. "Why are you being kind to me Hanamura? You saw what I did back there. I was practically the one who stabbed Pekoyama and slice Kuzuryuu's eyes out. I don't know what got into me back there."

"We all have our moments right. And I still believe in you Haru-chan. You gave me hope so I want to give you hope to by being there for you since I'm not good with words. I might end up saying something lewd instead."

Haru lightly laughed. "...Hanamura..."

"Yes Haru-chan?"

She smiled. "Do you ever eat? Where's your breakfast?"

"Oh, I already ate mine. As a cook, you always have to test the food before serving it to your customers."

They spent the rest of the time talking about random things about themselves. Haru listened to Hanamura's dream of how he was going to build the restaurant whether he finds his mother or not.

Listening to him, she felt hope returning to her. She couldn't hear the voices for now, but she saw ashes flying around her.

Today was the eighth day that they've been on the island. Only one week, and four of them were already dead.

When Monobear announced that it was morning, Haru decided to take a shower. Hanamura left to put the dishes back to the restaurant.

Taking her time showering, she tried to clear her mind, but then her actions back at the trial rewinded over and over again.

Then she felt arms being wrapped around her body. "You should've just let them die."

"I would've died, too." She whispered. "Togami...you're arms are thin."

"Do you really believe that pitiful copy of a pig was me? Don't you remember that he told you himself that he wasn't the real Togami. Or are you truly delusional?"

She turned around to see the skinny Togami. "I thought my mind would give me those it prefered. I prefer the other one over you anytime."

"Are you so sure of that?" He took her left hand and kissed her left ring finger. "It didn't take long for you to fall in love with me." He showed his engagement ring.

Haru turned the shower off and walked out the shower.

"Why are you upset? You should be relieved to know that the Togami heir has fallen for you."

The girl put on her clothes as quickly as possible before exiting.

"You're in love with me Haru."

The girl faced the illusion. "And how did I fall in love with you? Because if we're married, you'd be off sleeping with other women, so your kids could fight for a position, and then when my kid's not good enough, you'll just cast us aside like nothing! Now go away!" On her way out the door, she heard the male say so sincerely,

"I love you Haru."

She paused there and looked back to see no one. She tried imagining him there, but it didn't come to her. Looks like her mind is really out of her control, and she was out of meds. She'd have to sneak off in the middle of the night later for more, but for now, she had to go see the others and see what they think of her.

She could hear Saionji crying on her way to the restaurant. When she entered, she saw a memoral for Koizumi first. "Oh cool. Did you make this Saionji?"

"No." She sniffed. "It wasn't me. Who would make such a terrible thing?"

"That is right! And I am to rid of it at once!" Tanaka said.

"Why get rid of it? It's a memorial to Koizumi."

"A memorial?" Komaeda looked at it.

"Yeah. The candles, her pictures and the cow skulls are to commemorate her life and passing. It's really a nice mix because it shows her head strong personality and talent. Right Sonia?"

"Yes! When you truly look at it, it truly does remind us of Koizumi-san."

"You have made a wise assumption, mortal." Tanaka said. "It does remind us of the departed soul capturer one."

"Oh so that's what it is. My bad." Komaeda acted like the whole world was fine.

Saionji felt better when her memorial was left in peace.

Then Hanamura exited with a buffet. Haru ate again to not awkwardly sit and stare at the others.

Sonia asked her, "Haru-chan, are you alright now? You left without a word yesterday."

"Yeah, I'm fine, but I still feel like a complete jerk. I went over my head calling out on Kuzuryuu like that."

"It was to dispatch the killer..." Nanami told her. "If it weren't for you Haru-chan, we wouldn't have known who to vote for."

"Yeah." Souda agreed. "But you were really harsh on him. Callin' him a coward n' all. OW!" The mechanic was kicked by Sonia.

"He really was a coward though." Saionji pointed out. "Not that I wanted him to kill Big Sis Koizumi, but he has some serious issues."

"We shouldn't be talking about Kuzuryuu-san like this! He's injured!" Sonia told them.

"She's right." Nidai agreed. "And worst of all he's with Monobear which is only more worrying!"

Haru-chan accidentally dropped her spoon so reached down for it and then saw something she didn't expect to see. Tanaka and Souda were holding hands. She sneakily had Sonia drop her spoon for Haru to direct her to see the holding hands.

"Am I imagining it or are they holding hands?" She whispered a serious question. Her mind just tried to trick her into thinking she was engaged to an asshole who's actually in love with her. Who knows what it will do next.

Sonia and her sat up and she whispered to her, "Yesterday, Souda ran away again after you left. Tanaka must have found him and comforted him."

When Souda saw them whispering, he looked down and was surprise. He removed it and then got up to say he was done eating.

And then Monomi appeared having Haru instinctively step on her, and then be told the news that the bunny defeated another monobeast so there was a new island to discover. Haru honestly believed that Monobear was allowing her to do that so that there was a new place to murder.

When they decided to take the chance to get answers from her, she slipped away from Haru's hold. Pissed off, the soccer player destroyed a table.

"DAMMIT!" She growled.

"You should relax." Togami told her. "How do you expect to gain allies the way you are?"

"Calm down Haru-chan!" Nidai ordered. "You should save your energy for a real battle!"

"Like facing the monobeast with me." Owari suggested.

"Oi, don't do anything rash." Nidai scolded.

"Well, we should just forget about them for the moment." Komaeda said. "What's important is what are we going to do about the new island?"

"We check it out obviously." Haru responded at the inferior. "Kuzuryuu might be on that island for all we know." She walked away without hesitation.

The others followed except Nidai. On the third island, what they found was a hospital, a live house known as the Titty Typhoon, a cheap hotel, an eletrical town, and a movie theater.

At the eletrical town, she discovered something called the 'Worlds most despair inducing incident' about the students of Hope's Peak revolting against discrimination of the school.

Thinking about it, the school accepts those of talent, but must also be funded so having a bunch of non-talented rich people would be no surprise.

"Hey, Haru-chan!" The mechanic called out to her after she was done reading.

"What is it?"

"What you saw earlier under the table, it wasn't real!" Those words sounded terrifying to Haru, and pinched Souda. "OW! Why did you pinch me?!"

"To see if I was dreaming."

"Shouldn't that be the other way around!"

"Oh, you're right." She pinched herself. "OW! Okay, I'm not dreamin'!"

"...You must be sick of hearin' this but are you okay Haru-chan? You really got out of hand at the last trial."

"I know. I just can't help it when my blood is rushin' y'know. Like you right now with bein' unable to strip everythin' right now. I just couldn't help getting the killer already to win. Which is terrible, cuz I should've been against Monobear. You must hate to be around me now."

"No! What are you sayin' Haru-chan? I mean, you are gettin' weirder, but you're better than Komaeda fer sure."

The teen smiled. "Thanks Souda." She hugged him tightly leaning on to him to make sure that he was real. "N' you shouldn't be ashamed for bein' with Tanaka. I'm happy for you! Sonia supports you two, too!"

"I'm tellin' you I'm not with that weirdo! I like Sonia-san one-hundred percent! I like girls! What you saw earlier was a mistake! I didn't know he was holding my hand! My right hand is numb or somethin'!"

"Souda-san! Haru-chan!" Sonia came their way. "Tsumiki-san has made a grand discovery! You must hurry to the room at the far end of the corridor in the hospital's first floor."

"Sonia-san! I like you! I do really like you." The guy told her in a desperate pathetic fashion and blushed.

Sonia paused and then smiled, "Oh Souda-san, I like you too."

"You do?!"

"Yes. Just like how I like Haru-chan very much. As a friend."

FRIEND ZONED

Souda was heart broken. Haru-chan carried his body to the hospital to discover Kuzuryuu alive and his eye patched up. He still tried to act as his tough self, but shows to disbelieve that he was alive. Otherwise that meant that Pekoyama was truly dead.

Haru felt guiltier seeing how he is. "Hey, I know I'm the last person you want to see, so I'll make this quick n' get out of your face. I'm sorry for how I bashed on you back at the trial. It wasn't my business to call you out the way I did. So yeah...Sorry..." She walked out of the room while the others stayed in.

She passed by Hinata and then was at the lobby where Komaeda was.

"Haru-chan, I've been meaning to talk to you one on one."

Seeing as she was also insane, she shouldn't judge him. "Shoot." She took a seat on the chair.

The male leaned against the desk counter. "I've been wondering Haru-chan, you were at the second beach while the murder was taking place. Did you truly not notice the murder going on? You were quite detailed accusing Pekoyama-san and Kuzuryuu-kun as you did."

"...Komaeda, you know about your obsession with hope... You think it's such a powerful goal to have, but really, isn't hope just people being optimistic. Optimistic about death? Really Komaeda? You must've loved the sight of your parents dying in front of you at that plane crash."

"...You know about me?" The teen sounded slightly surprised and saddened.

"..." Haru was silent. She didn't know how she knew that and why she said it, but she didn't regret it. In fact she loved the look of despair on his face. She smirked and walked over to Komaeda. "Their deaths felt meaningless right Komaeda? Is that what you're afraid of? Meaningless death? Your hope, your despair, Komaeda..." She carresssed his cheek with her nail that was colored red. "Is meaningless so stop trying."

The boy was silent as he looked at her with pure despair. It was...beautiful.

"Falling into despair so easily?" Togami pulled away her carressing hand. "The woman I love wouldn't do this."

Her eyes widened at the realization. She gasped backing away. "I'm so sorry Komaeda! I didn't mean to say that! Of course you're important!"

"It's...okay Haru-chan. You're right. I knew I was useless to begin with."

"NO!" She grasped his shoulders hard. "What happened to your parents is not your fault! Everything is just coincidence! And nothin' ever stays the same forever! Everythin' will be better! I don't know when, but if you really want hope Komaeda, you shouldn't be looking towards death, but life instead!"

She knew her words weren't reaching to the male.

"Oh, hello Haru-chan." Komaeda appeared.

Haru-chan looked to where the previous Komaeda was to see him gone. "Komaeda, where did you come from?"

"I just came from the bathroom. I heard shouting. Is something wrong Haru-chan?" Feeling guilty and scared, she hugged him. "Ha-Haru-chan?"

"You're important Komaeda." She told him urgently. "If I ever say somethin' hurtful to you, don't believe me. Ever."

"Why are you telling me this so suddenly?"

"...I acted like a complete jerk at the trial, and I really regret it! It's bad enough seeing your childhood friend die before you."

"Ah, so that's it. But there's no need to worry! Pekoyama-san's death is Kuzuryuu's stepping stone to hope! Besides Haru-chan, there's been something I've been meaning to ask you about the trial."

"...Shoot."

"You know that I went to everyone's room to get their foot print, and I saw that your story is true that you did go for a swim by the foot prints you left behind where the tide didn't take away, but then I found something more interesting in your room."

"WAIT!" Owari called out to Nidai who was walking passed them. "Please! I promise I won't do anything reckless! I can't be without you!"

"...Komaeda, the one thing that makes people completely lose control is when they feel alone." Haru held his hand. "If you understand what it means to be alone, then don't tell the others."

"...Of course. I promise I won't, so there's nothing to worry about."

She smiled. "Thank you Komaeda." And then she hugged him. "You are important to us. You being alive gives us hope that we'll all get out of here... When you're not actin' like a complete psychopath though. But please stay alive."

She then walked out of the hospital which wasn't a wise decision considering her condition but after what she did to the hallucination of Komaeda, she couldn't deny that giving despair was just as amazing as giving hope. But from what Haru understood was that she just persuaded Komaeda into suicide.

"It was a good thing that we're just hallucinations then." Togami told her.

"You just told me this morning to kill them." Haru pointed out.

"Because they deserve it, but then you predictably become their friend."

Haru didn't question of how her friends were involved. She thought everything was too far fetched so tried to pay no mind to it.

"Unlike you who would've thought this whole thing was an actual game. I get it that we're both winners, but your kind of winning is unethical. Togami, if what I just said and what I hallucinate is really my memories, then if I'm your future...present fiance' please leave me alone."

"Do you really think that I would be pushed away that easily."

"If you love me, then you would."

"Then you certainly don't remember us."

"N' what us is that? Oh wait, I'm talkin' to a hallucination. All you're going to tell me is that you don't know. N' how will I know that you're honest? I won't." She walked ahead of that hallucination.

"Kiss me."

"What?"

"Must I repeat myself. You never had this problem before. I told you to kiss me. Close your eyes and kiss me."

Haru actually considered this, but then now she knew she was really crazy so walked away. Since the medication didn't work before, she decided to skip the rest of the day from it.

It was tough with the incessant voices terrifying her, but she stubbornly went to sleep.

She dreamt of being on a different bed with Togami sleeping next to her. The bastard looked too good for just sleeping.

His eyes fluttered opened and then looked at her. "Morning..."

She snuggled up to him. "G'morning."

"Please do not do that. It makes it harder to get out of this bed." He told her, but she just snuggled up to him more. "Now you are just being cute." She purred. There was a moment of bliss silence and then the man got off the bed.

Haru groaned.

"We need to get up. Naegi wants us there."

"For what? All you do is order people around." She smiled up at the half naked man.

"And you spout nonsense suggestions."

"We're creatin' a new world Baka-kuya. We need to be one-hundred percent sure we're ready to risk lives for our project."

"Naegi's project. I rather prefer having these people locked in Death camps, so they wouldn't bother any of us anymore."

"Watch your words Hitler, you might be put into those Death camps if you keep bein' a downer which is all the time." She got off the bed and kissed him.

That kiss felt like her whole world was amazing. Like it was completely unbroken.

Haru woke up with that soft fulfilling feeling that soon dissipated when Monobear got on the monitor. She sighed out, and got ready.

Funnily, she didn't hear any weird voices so spent breakfast with everyone except Kuzuryuu who was still at the hospital. She saw that Sonia was sitting next to Tanaka, and the mechanic was sitting at a separate table. The mechanic looked ticked off that Sonia was talking to Tanaka instead of him, so quickly had Haru come sit next to him.

Hanamura came out with a new buffet of food as usual. Everyone got up to have some and thanked the chef for a wonderful job. After that, he came to sit next to Haru.

"Hey scram! I need to talk to Haru-chan about somethin'!" Souda told the cook.

"Eh?!"

"Souda, he can sit here. He made you your favorite after all."

"Gnnrgh...fine. We're both wonderin' the same thin' any way." Souda then whispered to her with Hanamura leaning in, "Hey, do you know about Owari and Nidai?"

"About what?" She asked with her mouth full.

"Quiet down! And don't talk with yer mouth full!" He scolded like a forty year old man. "Do you know about whether they're in...an illicit relationship?"

Haru swallowed her food from choking. "What?" She whispered back.

"An illicit relationship. Yesterday at the hospital, Owari was spoutin' about takin' down one of the monobeast, n' got Nidai mad. He started spoutin' about not doin' what they promised which got Owari all womanly all of the sudden!"

"Yes. Very womanly indeed." Hanamura agreed. "She explained in great detail of how she could still remember the feeling of him inside her."

"Stop. Stop you perverts. You got it completely all wrong."

"What do you mean? They're not in an illicit relationship?" Souda arched an eyebrow.

"No." She grinned at him. "She was talkin' about gettin' a massage. Nidai offered me one, but I chickened out. He's really intense when he does that."

"Intense you say?" The cook grinned pervertedly. "Then I hope he doesn't mind giving me one next time."

"You really have no shame at all." Souda told him.

"And what about you Souda-kun?" Hanamura asked. "Have you seen Tanaka's snake yet?"

"Snake? You mean he has one!"

Haru wasn't sure whether to translate Hanamura's words or to lead Souda astray to say something unintended. She changed the subject instead.

After breakfast, Owari wanted to go off training. She had Haru come along with her without Nidai.

"You n' Nidai still fighting?" Haru asked as they were in combat.

"Fighting? What're we fighting about?"

"About you bein' reckless n' him not givin' you massages?"

"Oh that. He'll come around eventually."

"I've had coaches who don't come around unless they have..." Haru avoided a kick to the abdomen. She took that leg and flipped her around switching to a wrestling grapple. "been given reassurance that I don't recklessly ignore their...demands. Tap!"

"Never! Besides, once I beat that monobeast, he'll come around!"

"You're helpless. Tap!" Haru hardened her hold.

"Dammit!" She tapped, and then was set free. "Damn girl! When did you learn to wrestle?"

"...Ireland." She lied. She didn't know she knew wrestling.

"You've got to teach me!"

"Let's talk first. You shouldn't go against that beast! It has missiles! Unless you're Superwoman, you can't beat it. Hell, you can't beat a soccer player like me!"

"Yes I can! How else am I going to revenge Kuzuryuu?!"

Haru didn't bother try to make sense to her. She really was a one tracked person. She decided to just train more and then leave for lunch and then go off to do something else.

She found Saionji at the beach trampling on crabs out of anger. She walked over to her. "Hey Saionji."

"Big sis Haru-chan! Did you come here to squish crabs with me?" The teen tried to sell her cuteness.

Haru looked at the squashed crabs and squashed one herself to hear that crack and the feel of the shell breaking beneath her shoe. She figured that it was real enough. "Sure."

"Yea! I knew you weren't a complete wuss."

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing! Let's squish crabs together Big Sis Haru-chan!"

They squashed crabs together and then made it a race until they were all gone. It gave Haru an idea to fill the days.

"Awe! No more crabs! But I wanted to squash more!" She pouted. "Now what are we supposed to do?"

"I got an idea!"

"What is it Big Sis Haru-chan?" The girl was curious.

"I figured why not make a dance together."

"A dance together?"

"Yeah. There's a club with a stage at the new island. I figured that we could use it to make everyone see you dance in commemoration to Koizumi. I've been to your school, but I haven't seen you dance since you were off dancing somewhere else." Haru felt that she needed to give hope to avoid giving despair.

"A dance for Big Sis Koizumi?" The childish teen snorted. "What are you talking about? They'd just sleep before it even started."

"But it's something to do right? I'll dance with you to make you look better."

"When you put it like that...Okay! Let's dance for Big Sis Koizumi."

So the rest of the day, they made a dance for Koizumi.

For the entire day, Haru-chan didn't have a single voice in her head, or visions. It was weird. A good but worrying kind of weird.

Outside of the game, Togami, Kirigiri and Naegi had received news on Haru-chan's health.

"They told us that Haru-chan's mental health has gotten through what they refer as a 'Calming Period'." Naegi said. "They explained that it means that she's not having any mental symptoms, so that's a good thing right?"

"No it isn't." Togami responded. "It's only temporary, and this Haru is letting her guard down. It's coming back worse than you'd think."

In the game, Haru knew she was in a dream with Togami. She was in the middle of training with skilled MMA fighters who survived and served their purpose of training people who still had hope to go against despair.

Haru excelled quickly as she was a natural athlete. She was half the warrior Sakura was as the woman had trained her to her best, but she was a better fighter than Asahina when they battled it out.

It was only due to the fact that she had honed her skills as a master strategist.

After an extreme work out, she took a break to take a drink of water.

"You smell of sweat." Togami told her.

Haru snorted. "And you smell of sweet perfumes and puppies. What are you doin' down here? Shouldn't you be bossing people around up there?"

The man sighed. "I need a moment with my fiance'."

"What's wrong?" She walked over to him with concern.

"It appears that my father is alive..."

"And?"

"The story behind the Togami conglomerate's fall was because of him. He had abused his power having people he worked with assassinated to the point that it became sloppy. When he was discovered, he ran away."

The woman didn't need more words. She hugged him. "Look at the bright side. You're a better person. That's a big win."

The man chuckled returning the hug. "We did find him, but he shot himself in the head, and I'm standing. I guess I'm no longer a heir."

"Me neither." They kissed. Haru felt amazing once again until Kirigiri called out for her. "Yeah, Kirigiri?"

She turned away to see the woman. "Haru-chan. Togami-san. The former students are here."

"I still have doubts about this."

"It's just a virtual game Baka-kuya. We're very prepared." She looked over her shoulder at him.

The man crossed his arms. "I have no doubt since I am a part of this project."

The woman rolled her eyes. "I have no idea why I love you." She turned around, closing her eyes as she kissed him deeply. But something was wrong. Instead of the same amazing feeling. It was completely wrong.

She opened her eyes stepping back to see that she just kissed Hinata outside of the cabins. She shrieked falling back on the ground. "Am I dreaming?! Are you going to turn back to that black guy?!"

"Tha-That's racist!"

"I was talking about yur hair! Wait..." She got up stretching his face. "Are you real?"

Hinata pulled away. "Of course I'm real! It was you who-who kissed me!"

"Sorry! I thought you were someone else! Wait, what time is it?"

"It's still morning. We were going to breakfast." The male went completely red. "Exactly who did you think I was?"

"...I was thinking about my boyfriend. I have a habit of actin' out my imaginations."

"Oh...He's one lucky guy."

Everything turned awkward. "So please forget about me kissin' you."

"Ye-Yeah! Absolutely! It meant nothin'!" Then his readable face made a readable expression.

"Oh no! Was that yur first kiss?!"

"What?! No!"

"It was! Now I feel terrible!" Since she thought of Hinata as the guy into a fairy tale romance.

"Don't be! It was better than how you've been greeting me!"

"Oh yeah. Better...Breakfast." She walked ahead of him to breakfast. She didn't even remember getting up or changing her clothes. She knew she was experiencing a relapse like she did at the beach. She hoped that she didn't murder someone because who knows if she was killing in her sleep. And she thought she had it together yesterday.

At the restaurant lobby, Sonia was there. "Good morning. Did Mioda-san wake you, too, Haru-chan?"

"...Yeah. She was really poundin' on my door." Haru felt like that was true.

They entered the restaurant to find Kuzuryuu giving them a simple yakuza greeting. Souda pointed out the eye patch which meant that the eye wasn't working anymore. Saionji lashed him out on his petty forgiveness, and that Peko and Mahiru died because of him.

Kuzuryuu knew this so for forgiveness, he stabbed himself. Everyone panicked, and the gangster explained his actions, but they weren't good enough for Haru.

"Kuzuryuu! You fuckin' idiot! Nidai! Tsumiki! Help me out here!" Haru grabbed ahold of him with Nidai and headed for the hospital.

There, Tsumiki had them help her stop the bleeding and she stitched it up. Haru was pissed off.

Haru was standing next to him. "Hey idiot, I know yur yakuza n' all but you went a little too far." She sighed frustratedly. "But it really will leave a statement on Saionji. That's for sure. I'll be goin'."

"Wait. Haru-chan." Kuzuryuu called out to her. "You were right back at that trial. I am a coward."

"Shut up." She told him. "First of, I had no right tellin' you that, and second of all, you're the heir to a criminal organization where killing people and bein' targeted is natural. I'm jus' a heiress to normal companies. Yeah, my parents receive death threats, but not as constant as yours must be."

"Still. You were right. Because I was too scared to take my role as the leader of the clan seriously, I let Peko believe she didn't matter to me."

The girl sighed sitting on the bed. "I might not know who she truly was if she was really puttin' an act n' all, but the least I know is that at a moment like this, she'd tell you to not push yourself. Not as a tool, but as a friend." She smiled at him. "It's nice to see you finally openin' up though. Here." She handed him an invitation.

"What's this?"

"Saionji n' I made a dance to commemorate Koizumi. She wouldn't like you showin', but she would've wanted to shove your face in this anyway, so come if ya want." She got up and left after giving Nidai and Tsumiki their invitations.

At the first island, Saionji ran over to her. "Big Sis Haru-chan! I gave the others their invitations! Wanna practice some more? Because your technique is really weak."

"Alright."

The rest of the day, they've practiced their dance. Saionji wasn't sure if they were good enough, but Haru pushed her on to dance for Koizumi. For music, they had to use a CD of traditional Japanese music.

Saionji changed her orange kimono for a pink one with floral patterns, and wore a red obi sash. She had her hair tied back with one ponytail of pink flowers and a kitten.

Saionji made Haru tie up her hair in a japanese traditional style with red flowers. She was given a red kimono with a pink obi sash to match her but not completely take the spotlight. Then they did each other's make up.

For the first time, Haru felt like she had a little sister.

"Why did you invite that guy?" Saionji referred to Kuzuryuu.

"Even if we don't like him, we still need him as an ally." Haru reasoned. "Besides, if we need to sacrifice anyone, we'll push him at his blind spot." She winked at her. The little girl snickered evilly.

When the time came, everyone came to the Titty typhoon. Haru set the lights and then played the music before getting in position. She danced to her best with Saionji without taking the spotlight from her.

Then at the end, they asked for everyone's opinions. They all seemed to have liked it. Sonia definitely loved it for sure with her fascinations for the Japanese culture. Souda wondered what Sonia would be like in a kimono. Hinata complimented her though it was readable on his face that he was bored halfway through it, but did think they were really pretty on stage.

Saionji formed a patch with Kuzuryuu with the exception that she's willing to sacrifice him first.

Everyone seemed to be having fun until Monomi appeared.

"W-Wait! What are you doing evewyone?!"

"What the heck are you doing here?! We didn't invite you!" Saionji told the bunny angrily.

"Invited?...Wejected again." The bunny snifffed. "Wait! Now's not the time for that!"

"Did something happen?" Hinata asked.

"I-It's Miss Owari. Miss Owari just...Miss Owari just challenged Monobear into a duel!"

The hope filled atmosphere turned into despair. Haru and Nidai ran out the doors immediately.

At the beach of the first island, they found Owari heavily injured while Monobear wasn't.

"Seems like you barely avoided the fatal blow. Your speed is really something, huh? But did you take me on just to show off how good you are at running away?" The bear challenged.

Owari growled, "Goddammit! Why…why won't my attacks even leave a scratch!"

"That's, well...we live in different dimensions. Or should I say that we live in different universes, rather? Would a juvenile delinquent character be game for a character starring in the supernatural action genre? Upupu, there's no way."

What the bear said reminded Haru of her dreams earlier with Togami. She realized that her dreams might have been memories after all.

"Thee Owari is losing to that shitty toy?" Souda was slightly shocked.

"Monokuma is a high tech machine unbeatable in combat, but in the matter of speed, Owari is the fastest athlete I've ever seen!" Nidai said. "And yet she's losing..."

"It looks like we fell into a state where we can't do anything." Komaeda said. "At the very least, we will overcome the despair that is Owari's death, and treat this as "fertilizer" that'll help our hope grow. Just like Kuzuryuu!"

"Don't fuck with me!" The male shouted. "I will not tolerate that kind of action anymore! I rather it be my own life to stop that from happening!"

"But you can't Kuzuryuu-san!" Tsumiki told him worriedly.

"Who gives a shit?! This life that Peko gave me, I don't want it!"

"YOU FOOL!" Nidai shouted at him. "SHOULDN'T IT BE THAT YOU VALUE IT MORE!"

"What?"

"Everyone stay clear! I'll go face this! Nidai Nekomaru's final spark! Carve it well into your memories!"

Haru realized what was going to happen. Yet her actions was out of control. Nidai stood in front of the injured Owari to block the bazooka attack, but Haru kicked Monomi into the bazooka having it explode.

She then kicked Nidai down on the ground and then kicked Owari so hard that her mouth bled. "YOU FUCKIN' RETARDED BITCH!" She had her foot at the gymnast's throat on the ground.

"Haru-chan!" Sonia screamed out to her. Everyone else was shocked by her violent action.

"What the fuck were you thinkin'! Throwin' away your life like that! Nidai was goin' to fuckin' sacrifice himself for you! I knew you were a one-tracked bitch, but to the point of doin' something this fuckin' selfish! We are supposed to be a team! We're supposed to act as a team!"

"Haru-chan, you're killing her!" Tsumiki cried out.

Nidai grabbed her away. Owari coughed out and gasped for air.

"How dare you almost kill me?!" Monobear shouted. "That's a violation of the rules! I will punish you rule breakers at once!"

"No!" Haru shouted getting out of Nidai's grip. "No...You were about to kill Nidai instead of Owari, so what I did was prevent you from breaking the rules."

"That is true."

"Plus, almost killing her off the way you did...it's boring."

"What was that you bastard?!"

"I'm saying that you killing us off is such a boring way to run your game. Plus you aren't killing someone falling to despair. That's your goal isn't it? To make us feel despair. Kill me right now, you lose."

"That doesn't count for Owari-san though."

"Owari." She called out to her. "Do you value your life?"

"What?"

"I said do you value your life! Fall into despair now, you're dead! Look to hope, you're alive! Don't you want to live?!"

"I.."

"Looks like she's second guessing!"

"Owari, listen to me!" Nidai called out to her. "You are one of the fastest and most talented athletes I ever had the priviledge of training. As a coach, I'm not only suppose to train you of how to play the game but the importance of life! And for that, I'll gladly give my life in your stead to value it even more!"

"Nidai..." She nodded and stood up with a grin. "There's no way I'm handing you over! Unless we can have that deal again."

The man grinned. "YES! SO I WANT YOU TO SHOW MONOBEAR THAT YOU STILL HAVE ALL THE HOPE YOU HAVE!"

The girl grinned at the bear. "Oi, bear. You're not killing me or Nidai off!"

The bear growled. Haru questioned it. "So what's it gonna be?"

"I should kill all of you bastards, but alas, Haru-chan is right. Killing you like this would be boring. Oh well. See you tomorrow, you bastards." Monobear left.

Everyone was somewhat relieved that it was over. "Big Sis Haru-chan!" Saionji ran over to her in a hug. "I thought that stupid bear was going to kill you! And I'd lose you like Big Sis Koizumi!"

"Oh Haru-chan!" Sonia and Hanamura ran over to her to hug her.

"You did something brave." Togami told her. "But once again, lost control."

The bruises at Owari's neck began to form. Haru was terrified of her actions, but this time she knew exactly why she did it. She did the same thing to her teammate. They were supposed to be a team, but it just didn't work out.

Saionji began complaining about Owari being in the wrong for nearly having them killed. Owari didn't understand what the girl was blabbering about, and just wanted Nidai to fulfill his promise. Hanamura wanted to join in too.

Haru told them that she needed to sleep so went to her cabin. She remembered that she still didn't have any medication, but still haven't done anything other than kiss Hinata and purposely almost kill Owari.

Seeing that they were both terrible, since having relapses and murderous intent are dangerous, she waited an hour before sneaking off to the pharmacy. There she looked for sleeping pills to keep her asleep for the full ten hours to not kill anyone.

Then she heard someone fall down. "Who's there?" She ran out to find Souda on the ground. "Souda?" She was really surprised.

"Haru-chan, What are you doin' here?" Souda appeared asking.

"I'm here for sleeping pills to help me sleep. What are you doing here?"

"No reason. Not followin' you around or anythin'." The number one worst liar said.

"Why are you followin' me?" She asked anyway.

"I wasn't following you! I jus' saw ya leaving yur cabin n' was wondering where you were going?"

Haru found that suspicious and then realized that she was hallucinating once again. "It's weird that someone like you would follow me in the middle of the dark to a deserted island all alone with a girl who nearly killed Owari."

"...But you didn't kill her. Plus she deserved it. I'd also do the same thing if I were you. That one-tracked minded girl."

"...You don't want to be me Souda... I'm insane. I might be even more insane than Komaeda."

"What'dya mean?" The boy was becoming scared so Haru walked back from him.

"I don't know. Ever since Hanamura conked me at the head, I've been having hallucinations and relapses. I thought it was schizophrenia at first n' could control it but it's becoming worse. These hallucinations...they keep telling me to kill all of you... so stay away from me Souda. I don't want to kill you. I don't want to kill anyone."

"But these are jus' hallucinations, right?...It's not like they can really make you do things right?" Souda was bewildered.

"I don't know. Even before Hanamura hurt me, I've been losing control of myself, and I don't know why. Monobear must've done something to me more than just losing my memories. The one person you should be running away from is me, so...run away."

She saw that her hallucination wasn't going away so walked away herself. "Wait Haru!" She stopped and faced Souda. "I...I don't know what's wrong with you, but we're friends. It'll be wrong to leave you alone like this."

"Don't be an idiot Souda. I'm dangerous."

"You said it so yurself didn't you. I'm too valuable to be killed off, or were you lyin'?"

"...No. But what if I killed you during one of my relapses? None of us would know if I'm having one."

"We'll work it out."

Haru snorted. "Don't do this. Don't pretend that everythin's okay. Cuz it's not. Don't trick me!"

"I'm not tricking you."

"Then don't say those things! It's bad enough that I watched my friends die!...Koizumi...Twogami, Mioda, and even Pekoyama! We thought we could trust them, but look what happened! But unlike them, I wouldn't need a motive from Monobear! It already fucked my brain!"

"Calm do-"

"HOW?! I've been trying to fix this since it started! Run Souda! Run away like you always do!" The guy didn't move so she pushed his shoulder. "I told you to run! GO! I said to go! Leave me alone! Just leave me alone! I can fix this myself!"

"Haru!"

"Shut up and leave! Leave or else you're gonna regret it!" She broke to tears when the hallucination wouldn't go away. "I said go! Go away! Go away! Go away!" She pushed him to the ground.

She stared at the hallucination that just wouldn't go away. "Why won't you go away?"

Souda got up dusting himself off. "I can't leave you like this."

Then Haru remembered Souda telling her that his dad would beat him if he didn't go to school, and how their bike shop sold nothing. Always poor that it mustn't be new for the mechanic to watch someone break down in front of him.

But this was a hallucination. She didn't know whether the real Souda would just leave her to trust someone else, or stay with her like this. She didn't truly know him at all.

But she knew herself, and she didn't want to be alone. Her parents...her therapist...if any of the dreams and hallucinations were true, they were dead. Just as she said in her own dream, she wasn't a heiress anymore.

So Haru Clenched onto his yellow jumpsuit as she hoped that this was all reality, but thought better of it. Even as the teen hugged her back in a warm embrace, an embrace so warm that the male was practically burning, she knew she'd just wake up.

And so she did.

She looked for the sleeping pills to see that there was none so her going out that night must've been a fake dream. She sighed walking out and finding Souda outside.

"G'morning!" She gave him a big smile.

He grinned back at her with his arms behind his head. "Morning to you too!" The soccer player noticed a bruise on his neck.

"Is that..." She took a closer look. "A hickey?"

"Ah!" He covered his neck.

The girl immediately knew what happened. Souda wouldn't be shocked unless it was Sonia. She had the biggest smile on her face. "You...!"

"No! It's not what you're thinking!"

"It is! It is! When?!"

"I'm tellin' you it's not!"

"Was it yesterday?!...Were you in Tanaka's room late last night?"

"No! Definitely not! This was a bug bite!"

"A bug bite? If you say so."

"Big sis Haru-chan!" Saionji ran over to her. "Let's go to breakfast together!"

"Okay. Congratulations on your hickey Souda!"

"Oi! It's not a hickey!"

The two went to the restaurant to find Owari crying about yesterday which was out of her character. Komaeda was lying to them which wasn't anything new.

Haru wasn't concern at all, but then she noticed something wrong with Hanamura. He was eating from a bag of chips. "Hanamura? What are you doing?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you eating chips? You hate that junk!"

"Komaeda said that they were good for me, and that I should eat some." He responded in a monotone.

"No they're not! Stop eating them!" She took the bag away.

"Okay."

Then Hinata came in panicking and asking what was wrong but no one knew. Monobear soon came and had everyone come to the restaurant to explain what was going on.

It turned out that the three of them had the despair fever from bugs that Monobear gave them. Each bug gave different symptoms to each person. Komaeda had the 'lying disease', Owari had the 'scaredy cat disease', and Hanamura had 'do as you please disease' meaning he had no regard whatsoever for his life or passion.

Then it turns out that it was infectious, but Haru didn't care. They need to go to the hospital. Nidai and Souda carried Komaeda, Owari walked and Haru carried Hanamura to the island feeling him burn up.

She helped Tsumiki change them and then treated the cook with a lot of care. "W-wow Haru-chan... you look like you have a lot of experience with this." The nurse complimented.

"Not as good as you though who actually knows what to do. I'm only doing what my maids would do when I got a fever. I did study psychology and it's medicine though."

"Re-really?"

"Yeah. Kind of like a doctor, I want to save people. Make them understand what they're going through, and work them through it. People like Komaeda, but then like every sport needs a certain ball, every patient needs a certain doctor in their life. Komaeda needs better specialist than me to help him."

The two teens looked a the despair one telling them that he was okay. They both knew he had dementia and lymphoma that they both worried that he'll die from this fever.

"Damn that Monobear! He knows about Komaeda's condition! He shouldn't have done this to him! He shouldn't have done this to everyone! He's practically violating the rules himself!"

"Bu-But if someone were to kill..."

"Don't talk like that Tsumiki! Hanamura was already filled with so much hope after what happened! He had a dream! He wanted to open his own restaurant in the name of his mother! Why take it from him?!...Fuck, it's cuz of me."

"E-Excuse me."

"Last night, I stood up to Monobear. It's so fuckin' obvious! He bugged Komaeda who would become the obvious killer. He bugged Owari, who broke the rules, and then bugged Hanamura to get back at me. That makes him my full responsibility."

"I-It's not your fault Haru-chan...You were only saving Nidai-kun and Owari-san."

"...Nidai could've survived that blast..." Haru looked at Hanamura and checked if he was breathing.

When they went to the lobby to check on the others, only Nidai, Hinata and Kuzuryuu was left. Turned out that the rest didn't want to get infected so were staying at the motel. Souda was going to find a way for them to communicate.

So they used the time to tend to the sick people's needs, and then at night they split sleeping shifts. Nidai and Kuzuryuu were to take the first shift together. Haru decided to sleep nearby Hanamura by getting a sleeping bag from the market. Hinata was going to sleep at the spare bed at one of the rooms.

In her dream, she was sitting with her parents at a restaurant. Both of them on their phones. Haru found that odd because her and her dad would usually talk at the restaurant. She tried to speak but no words were formed. She reached out to him but her hand phased through him. She tried her mother but there was nothing.

A grown up Hanamura comes out of the kitchen. Haru was surprised. The cook gave them their meals. It looked delicious that they didn't gave a second to think before eating their food and talked about business as usual.

And then both of them made a contorted face as they held their stomach. They coughed out blood and then started to shake violently.

Haru tried to cry out to them. The guards were already aiming at Hanamura, but they were cut down by a swordwoman, a grown up Pekoyama.

Her parents threw up blood and foamed at the mouth. They just sat there with their eyes no longer moving.

"No..." Haru could finally squeak a sound. "NO!" The soccer player couldn't believe it. It had to be a just a dream! It's not her memories!

"It's useless pretending to not believe..." The female voice told her. She looked towards the voice to see a sillouhette of a girl wearing a moniskirt and pig tails. Her friends on the island appeared beside her and one in front of her. All of them wearing Monobear's face. "Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair! Despair! GAHAHAHAHA!"

The one in front of her looked a lot like Hinata's silouhuette by the ahoge, but then his hair grew out, and red eyes glowed. His hand reached out to her blocking her vision. "You will become one of us."

Haru screamed. She sat up abruptly gasping sharply for air.

"Haru-chan!" Kuzuryuu and Nidai ran into the room. "What's wrong?!"

"I..." She gulped. "It was just a nightmare...Hanamura." She got out of her sleeping bag to see him resting peacefully. He really did take the sleeping order seriously. She sat next to him on the bed. "Hanamura wake up."

He opened his eyes. "Yes?"

"Penis."

"Penis." He said in monotone.

"He still has the fever. Go back to sleep and breathe as you do. If you need to use the restroom, go use it and then come back here to sleep and breathe as you do. If you're hungry, tell me please. Okay?"

"Yes." He closed his eyes.

"You...you really care about him." Kuzuryuu said.

"I'm...I'm forgiving him. I forgive Hanamura for all the things he did to me." Haru said honestly. If the memories were real, deeply, she felt resentment but most of all forgiveness. Just so her hate could rest, and she could move on.

The two teens in the room with her were bewildered by her actions. They understood partially, but by how Haru made it sound, the cook must have done more. They let them be, only for them to discover that something was wrong with Komaeda.

Tsumiki made it her job to make sure that he was getting better, and then Kuzuryuu and Nidai showed Hinata and her the gizmo to communicate with the others at the motel. They had a short talk with Souda, and then Monobear got mad at them. They weren't allowed in the hospital, except for the patients and Tsumiki, so they had to leave.

Haru was unsure about whether to leave Hanamura alone. She made sure to tell him to listen to Tsumiki for any thing she needs him to do and then left to the cabins.

"Haru-chan." Hinata called out to her. The girl backed away from him. "I-Is something wrong?"

"No. No. Sorry..." She faintly remembered the long hair Hinata. "It's just...please don't ever grow your hair long or wear red contacts ever."

"What?"

"Nothing. What do you want Hinata?"

"I just wanted to see if you're okay. Kuzuryuu told me that you had a nightmare."

"Yeah. I'm better. How can you not have nightmares on this island. I'm surprised no one else has them."

"Maybe some of us do but don't talk about it."

"Yeah...Hinata..."

"What is it Haru-chan?"

"Whoever you became in the future-Whoever everyone turned to in the future or present, or whatever, I'll always forgive you."

"Where did that come from? Forgive us for what?"

"...I don't know. I have a feeling that no matter what happens, we should always forgive the ones who hurt you cuz unlike us, we had someone to give us hope despite the odds. I truly believe that everyone I cared about is dead now."

"What?!"

"You remember right? The whole 'Worlds' Destroyers' business."

"You can't truly believe that!"

"I have to! I'm not fallin' into despair. I'm facin' reality. I can't build hope out of false expectations. Komaeda believes that as long as we are talented and are able to overcome the situations that would give an ordinary person to despair, we create hope. But in my opinion, that's somewhat false."

"What is your opinion of hope?" Hinata was curious.

"...Komaeda isn't completely wrong. It's just that he discriminates hope like Hope's Peak did. Hope should be available to anyone. Talented or untalented. Talent has nothing to do optimism. But coming from a talented person, it must mean nothin' to those who are talented."

"No. I don't even know what's my talent, and I believe you one hundred percent."

"Thanks Hinata. I forgot that you didn't know your talent, but see, you didn't just looked at me as a talented soccer player."

"That's true. I completely forgot how different we are."

"N' Komaeda shouldn't feel that way. I hope you can lay that message to him."

"Why me?!"

"Cuz he wouldn't see it as pity from me. Tell him to stop discriminating himself. His hope for us off the island is important to us."

"I-I will!"

The two said their good nights and went to bed.

Outside, Togami laid back on his chair and said, "She gets it from you."

"What was that Togami-kun?" Naegi asked.

The man sighed. "The way she talks. It's all on what you told her. Her unconscious of her memories are reaching to her conscious meaning that she's remembering at a rapid rate about the truth. The part of that being you teaching her hope while I'm just an annoyance of a hallucination."

"That's not true Togami-kun!"

"Quiet." He ordered. "And thank you."

"Huh?"

"If you hadn't given her hope Naegi, she would've lost." He looked away and continued to work ways of getting them all out. The brunette smiled accepting the thank you.

The next day, Haru woke up without having more nightmares. She hurriedly got ready, and ran to the hospital to check on Hanamura. She planned on skipping on talking with the others at the motel, but Nidai called her that they wanted to see her.

After calming down Sonia, Souda and Saionji from worrying about her catching the bug, she continued taking care of the cook while talking with Tsumiki.

The conversation was pleasantly on their past. Haru didn't add too much about her being a bastard and the mental asylum, but she felt like she could trust Tsumiki with help.

"Tsumiki..." She started. They were in the room with Komaeda. She was assisting the nurse which was weird to them.

"Yes Haru-chan?" The nurse looked at her.

Haru was about to confess of her illness, but then she chickened out. "Nothing...I just hope Hanamura will be okay."

"You really care about him. If you don't mind me saying!"

"I don't. I really want him to fulfill his dream. I want him to have hope. I know he's fightin' against this despair. Or denyin' that he's sick. But he'll pull through. I know it."

"You're really hopeful Haru-chan..." The way the nurse said it sounded off.

"Yeah. I guess seein' Hanamura like this, I want to stay as optimistic as possible and reassure him that everythin's all right. You could say I'm holding his hope for him...Wow, that was really cheesy." They giggled.

When it was time for bed, Haru was ready to go off but then Tsumiki stopped her.

"Haru-chan, I-I wanted to thank you, if you don't mind!"

The girl smiled brightly, "Of course not! And thank you Tsumiki. We're very lucky to have you."

The nurse blushed. "Y-yes. Um...Haru-chan, I wanted to give you this as a thank you gift." She handed the soccer player a small bottle of water.

"It's best to be hydrated before going to sleep...so please drink this on your way back."

"That's very nice of you. I am getting thirsty. Bye Tsumiki. I'll leave everything to you."

She left with the bottle of water. At her bedroom she was going to drink it, but then Togami appeared.

"Don't drink it."

"Oh great. And I thought the hallucinations were stopping."

"You're brain system is repelling against Monobear's effect on you, but you're still in danger of your own mind."

"Yeah. I think I got the message last night."

"Then you understand that you shouldn't drink that. You were fortunate that your so called present friend would never do wrong with his food unlike what he did to your parents when he fell into despair."

"It's not his fault. It was hers."

"Her who?"

"I don't know. Shouldn't you be telling that or am I gonna dream the answer? All I got was that my parents, and possibly my therapist is dead. All my island friends are evil by falling into despair, and we got them into some kind of project of a virtual game or something with some woman named Kirigiri."

"I know as much as you know, but we are both aware that as you begin to remember, everyone will realize that you're one of the two traitors, and Monobear will kill you permanently."

Haru gulped. She looked at the bottle water and decided against it.

"Good. You're finally listening to me." The hallucination smirked.

"Togami..." She said, and the real Togami listened in, "Are you alive?"

The hallucination walked over to her and kissed her on the lips. "Yes." And then disappeared.

The next morning she woke up before the morning announcement, and went to breakfast where the food that wasn't glorious like Hanamura's own. She ate anyway and then went to the hospital quickly to see Hanamura but then when she opened the door, he was gone.

Faster than Owari, she searched the hospital, and then ran to the next building. The titty Typhoon live house to find Tsumiki unwrapping the wall paper that revealed a dead Saionji. Hanamura was on the floor. His face completely still and lifeless.

"Ha-Haru-chan! It's not what it looks like! I found them like this! The others are coming soon!" Tsumiki told her.

"But you're the only one I told Hanamura to listen to. I even tested it out with Kuzuryuu and Nidai." Haru whispered to herself. She couldn't control her body then. "YOU BITCH!"

She launched at her. Tsumiki moved out of the way trying to run for her life, but Haru jumped on her and tried to choke the very life out of her. She could just snap her neck but then she wasn't sure if she should.

The female in pig tails appeared. "Yes! Kill her! She killed your two valuable friends! Both who you deeply cared for!"

"No!" Togami appeared. "If you kill her now, you will be executed."

"Who cares?! Her love ones are dead! And she doesn't even know you! Never even liked you to begin with!"

"Haru, you can't fall to despair! Monobear will win!"

"Hanamura dreamt of owning his own restaurant for his mother who is dead as a door nail!"

"They wouldn't want you to justify them like this! They wouldn't want you to die!"

"But what if everyone ends up accusing the wrong person and she goes scott free?!"

"Her friends will not let it happen!"

"What friends?! It's only been thirteen days! Barely even two weeks! She may got the stars, but she doesn't have the diamonds!"

"Haru, listen to me. Everyone deserves hope and forgiveness."

"Everyone deserves justice!"

"Everyone will be justified by trial."

"By Monobear's terms!"

"You will win without doin' this! You put your hope in your friends, but the one's alive need you now!"

"What do you know?! You're just an illusion! Hell, this might even be all just a dream! Or you really are in a virtual game and even when you win, all that will happen will have everything reset and you'll watch your friends die over and over-"

"Don't listen to her!"

"Over and over and over and OVER-"

"HARU!"

"OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!"

Everyone bursted through the door, and Haru let go of Tsumiki's neck. The nurse cried out, "Help! She's trying to kill me!"

Haru was speechless to her accusation because the voices continued to cram into her head. "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"

Everyone was completely shocked by her response and the other two killed in the room. Nidai grabbed her and for the sake of not tampering the investigation or killing them, she was tied up and gaurded by Owari and Nidai in one of the motel rooms.

She lied on the bed listening to people screaming, shouting, laughing, and crying so loud that she didn't know which ones fell silent as there were sounds of machines killing people.

Then there was a moment of silence when Tsumiki entered the room. Bruises visibiliy forming at her neck just like Owari.

"Mymymymymymy." The nurse said with a soft pleasant tone. "I thought drugging you and blaming you the way I planned previously would've worked, but this is so much better. Hinata saw a recorded tape of Hanamura following your every instruction while saying your name. It was nice of you to let him follow my every need. Uhuhuhuhu."

She caressed Haru's face. "It didn't have to be Hanamura, but you were brimming with so much hope for him. The way you forgave him. It was really disgusting. Reallyreallyreallyreallyreally disgusting. So I killed him, and I wasn't planning on killing Saionji, too, but she caught me in the act, so I had to. But then remembering that she was also a close friend, it was even more better than I planned."

She got up to leave. "But I have to thank you Haru-chan. You were able to help me compensate the love that that person gave me. So even if I died at your hands earlier, it would've been the best to know that I have filled you with despair. Truly...thanky you." She left.

Then the voices came back to her in full range. She knew this was the end...So why not give in to despair...Hanamura died because of her.

Did she even know who she was? Were these even memories? Was any of this real? Was anything real anymore?

No one would answer her, so she grew to not care anymore. Not care about life anymore.

Togami from outside slammed the table. "Get her out immediately!"

"We cannot sir! The virus is still blocking all access to do so!"

"Where is Fujisaki?!"

"Calm down To-"

"Don't tell me to calm down!" He shouted at Naegi. "She is going to die! Don't you see that?!"

"Togami-kun," Kirigiri said. "Have faith for Haru-chan."

"Faith?! She is about to die, and there is no reassurance that we can ever bring her back! Why couldn't she find forgiveness and faith somewhere else?!" Togami felt light headed.

"Togami, Haru-chan would have believed in you if you were in the same predicament." Kirigiri snapped in her own way. "All we can do is hope for her and her new friends to win against the virus."

The blonde knew Kirigiri was right, but it would hurt too much if his expectation was wrong.

When the investigation was wrong, Haru was bought to the Monobear rock where she had to face her trial.

"Haru-chan! I know you didn't do it!" Sonia told her supportively.

"It's no use Sonia..."

"What?"

"Even if I had the best attorney, It's obvious..."

"No! Haru-chan! You can't give up!" Sonia tried to encourage her but it meant nothing to her. "You deeply cared for Hanamura! I know you did!"

"...Does that matter..."

The escalator appeared for them to enter the elevator. Everyone tried not to glance at her. At the trial, most of them looked reluctant to start. Even Komaeda didn't start.

Haru looked at the eleven people left: Owari, Nidai, Kuzuryuu, Tsumiki, Hinata, Nanami, Komaeda, Sonia, Souda and Tanaka.

Haru faintly remembered the good times they had together. Becoming close friends with both Sonia and Souda. Training with Nidai and Owari. Playing games with Nanami. And having the time to talk with the rest.

But now, all those memories didn't matter. They meant nothing to her.

"...We are not accusing Haru-chan immediately.." Nanami said. "For now, we should continue to get away from this despairing situation." So the trial began. "...Since it was Hinata-kun who was at the scene of the crime first, may he please go over the case for us."

Hinata gulped. "Got it." He began to explain how they handled the despair fever. After Tsumiki had called him to see that Komaeda had improved, and then went to the bathroom while he went to the lobby and then saw Hanamura kill himself as his last words were, "Yes, Haru-chan."

With Haru's ability to see strategies in a blink, she immediately saw Tsumiki's plan.

The nurse had already planned everything last night by having Hanamura and her go to the live house that night. The girl telling the cook to do every instruction from how and what time he should kill himself. Saionji must have went to the live house by accident.

The only remaining answer was using the mirror to fix her obi sash by using the mirror since Haru couldn't help her. It must have been Sonia or Nanami her told her since they were the only girls. The timing being early, but then Saionji leaving when everyone was asleep out of embarrassment.

Tsumiki was aware of Haru arriving early and being fast, so had to slow her down. Hence giving her the water bottle mixed with a drug to sleep in which the soccer player hasn't done since they arrived. Kuzuryuu and Nidai might have been at the hospital already. Arriving late with no one witnessing her come by would have made her more suspicious.

Then she heard a sudden turn of events, Komaeda began suspecting Hinata since he was the only one watching the video and the one who saw it first, but then he never watched the movie.

Haru realized that she never watched the movie either since she never went there, but then who was to vouch that she didn't watch it while no one was looking. She didn't even have the ticket to prove it like Hinata.

The conversation switched to how Hanamura had died. He died by a strangulations. Yet the problem was that Haru could've just told Hanamura to stop breathing. Remembering the time he didn't, his face turned blue, but he didn't reflex meaning that the fever went as far as stopping his peripheral nervous system. Tsumiki knew that.

So Hanamura didn't die by the rope but by holding his breath. Hinata saw him earlier with a bag over his head from the camera. By his speed, it'd take him about five minutes to reach the live house meaning that Hanamura might have been still alive before Tsumiki tightened the rope to make sure he didn't breathe, and then was going to leave after revealing Saionji just to make it look like everything was present time, but then she arrived.

But who cared. Everyone was better off dying. Life wasn't important. It was greatly overrated.

The conversation quickly moved to Komaeda revealing that the wall paper was used at the crime scene. Hinata concluded that it was used to make another pillar to cover Saionji's body.

Then discovered that the culprit copied the movie in order to confuse them of who was murdered first. To prove this, Hanamura had blood under his feet, and there was blood stains on the floor that the culprit failed to clean up.

The way Saionji was tied up and the air conditioning all made Tsumiki look innocent.

Then Komaeda finally asked the questioned, "Why did Haru-chan attack you Tsumiki-san?"

"Ah! Uh! Uhm! I don't know!"

"In fact, why were you in the live house to begin with?"

"I noticed that Hanamura-kun was missing after I went to the bathroom... I went to the lobby to find Hinata-kun but he was gone, so went off to find him. The live house was the closest building I went to whe-whe-where I found... Haru-chan taking down the pillar."

"So you're saying that you witnessed Haru-chan taking down the pillar."

"Ye-yes." Tsumiki showed how greatly uncomfortable she was saying this near her attempted killer.

"Do you have anything to say Haru-chan?" The lucky student asked.

"...No..." She responded bluntly.

"Is that all you have to say?"

"...Whatever..."

"Haru-chan!" Sonia cried out. "You need to defend yourself! I can never believe you killed Hanamura!"

"Then let us be direct with her." Komaeda said. "Haru-chan, did you kill Hanamura and Saionji-san?"

Haru thought of how to answer that. She then thought about her relapses. What if she did kill them and wasn't aware? What if Tsumiki was just taking down the pillar to realize it was fake and then changed her story to not appear suspicious?

"...I...I don't know."

"You don't know?" Komaeda was surprised by the answer as everyone else was. "So you don't know if you killed them or not?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean by you don't know?! You can only be there to know if you're the culprit!" Nidai said.

"I don't know."

"Haru-chan, are you sick or somethin'?" Owari questioned.

"I don't know."

"Do you perhaps have the despair fever?!" Sonia questioned.

"She has been in the devil's place where it's captors has taken hospitality within." Tanaka said.

"She was very close to Hanamura as to going so far to sleep near him with a sleeping bag." Kuzuryuu pointed out reluctantly.

"I don't know."

"Haru-chan..." Hinata looked lost. "Are you sure you don't know or...you don't want to admit it."

"I don't know."

"Is it because of the despair fever?" Komaeda questioned, and then everyone got into a debate about it. There voices crowding on top of each other in Haru's ears. There voices and other voices further crowded her to the point that she broke.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" She screeched. "You keep talking and talking but all your saying is meaningless crap! Like seriously! Are you all idiots?! What's so great about living?!"

"Ha-Haru-chan!" Everyone was dumbstrucked by her sudden burst.

She giggled, and then said in a rocking happy Mioda style, "You are all just a bunch of low brain fuckers!" She switched to sadistic Saionji style, "You really think that you can figure this all out by just simply talking? What's the point when all of you having obvious on your ugly faces that you all think it's me." Switched to smart cool Twogami, "Seriously, you are all childish." And then switched to scaredy cat Hanamura, "This is definitely not happening. Nope. Do you see idiots around because I don't." And then switched to warrior cool Pekoyama, "You should give it up now for the sake of justice. It's the path we must take."

"What's wrong Haru-chan?" Sonia asked.

"Gwuhahahaha!" Haru had her tongue sticking out. "Shut up whore! If there's anything wrong, it's you! What the hell kind of interest do you have? Unlike me who's true passion is cute boys! Guwahahaha!" She tongue got back in and she looked at them with disgust. "You all think I'm the murderer! All your kindness was a lie!" She suddenly got freaked out, "This is some serious mad shit man!" She suddenly turned cute, "You all think I'm insane. I can tell because I'm an esper. Just kidding!"

"Haru-chan stop!" Nanami told her.

"SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP! Do you know what's happening right now?!" She giggled as one hand covered one eye and the other staring at them. She can't help the biggest grin. "It's the ultimate despair. Upupupupu!" She hugged herself as she began to drool down her chin. "It's so amazing. Definitely chills down my spine man."

"Is this your true self Haru-chan or the despair fever?" Komaeda questioned.

"You would like to know that killer. Killer is such a fitting word to you. Never been forgiven for the fact that you killed your parents right?" She saw the shocked face on him. "Let me remember. A family of a man and woman and their son on a plane going on a happy family trip, but then the plane was hijacked by a bunch of martyrs! All of you would've died for certain if it weren't for that meteor right?!"

The lucky teen couldn't say a word. The others were unsure of what to say.

"You were rather unlucky that the plane got hijacked but then got lucky to survive but unlucky to lose your parents but lucky to have all the riches and freedom you want, but then unlucky to be kidnapped and realized how fuckin' lonely you were when no one would ever looked for you, but lucky to find a lottery ticket that got you to Hope's Peak!" Then she went blunt. "Wow. What a life? GUWAHAHAHAHA!" She sang. "You killed you parents! You killed you parents!"

"Enough Haru-chan! This isn't you!" Hinata shouted. "You told me before that everyone deserves hope!"

"You really think that? You really think you fuckin' lot deserves hope! You are the last people who deserves it!"

"What do you mean?!"

"I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I...I DON'T KNOW!" She said it all out. "I don't know why I kissed Twogami before he killed Mioda! I don't know why I just watched and let Pekoyama murder Koizumi! I don't know why I think you're all murderers! I don't know why I think Hinata is the reason we're in this mess in the first place!"

"Me?!"

"You don't know you're fuckin' talent right?! Well this is your fuckin' talent. This is all your fuckin' talent! SUPER HIGHSCHOOL LEVEL DESPAIR!" She giggled. "Don't you get it. The people you were...the people you actually are...are killers...This is why the 'World's Destroyers' and Hinata are putting you all through this. You killed people. Innocent people. Especially Hanamura. He killed my parents. He killed my parents! That's why I killed him! That's...why I killed him..." She began to feel herself shutting down.

"Ahoy!" Monobear said. "Are we ready to vote?!"

Everyone was hesitant but they had an actual confession. After admitting something like that, how could they believe she didn't kill Hanamura. Everyone began saying distantly of Haru's confession while having the hint of agreeing that it's her.

"Wait!" Souda shouted. "Gi...Give her a break! She isn't herself!"

"Even if we wait, it doesn't change the fact that she killed Hanamura-san and Saionji-san." Komaeda said lifelessly. Feeling complete despair and his reality of killing his parents.

"You got that right!" Haru grinned.

"No! She really can't control herself. Monobear wired her to be like this! She's schizo-Schizo-something! Schizophrenic or something!"

"Schizophrenic!" Haru was about to laugh but then realized something. "Schizophrenic...Schizo..." She felt her body relaxed. "How...How do you know that?"

"You told me the other night." Souda confessed. "At the pharmacy."

"But...But the sleeping pills."

"You put them back thinking you didn't need them."

"But...But I told you that I could kill you. Y-you didn't run away."

The guy scratched behind his head. "You looked so scared, I'd be a bastard to just leave you like that."

"Is...Is all this real?"

"It's very real Haru-chan." Sonia told her. "We're all here."

"..." Haru was frozen for a moment and then clenched her fists and bought them to her chest. She closed her eyes and put her head down.

She reflected on her actions. Everything she has done, and then realized how selfish she became. Easily letting despair take over her mind. The voices in her head were still so loud but then she reasoned to the best of her ability that a dream or not, Haru wouldn't let death and despair cheat life. Life was the most important.

She opened her eyes. "I'm in control. For all I've said, I don't know if it's true. Ever since we got on this island, I have been losing control of myself and I believe all of it is because of Monobear."

"Eh? Why are you accusing me? It was Monomi who stole your memories." The bear pointed out.

"Despite the hallucinations and relapses I've had, my instincts have never been wrong. It's definitely you Monobear, and I don't know what you're doing, but I'm not letting you kill these people!"

"That's such a bold statement coming from you who has bought Komaeda into despair. It wasn't very nice calling him a killer."

"It wasn't. But Komaeda has already thinks himself as one because he has never been forgiven for who he believes he is. But Komaeda, hasn't thought hard enough of the type of people he's surrounded by."

Komaeda looked at her.

She was determined to set everything right. "You are right that overcoming a despairing situation gives hope, but you discriminate it for those with talent. You don't allow yourself to have hope cuz you think you don't deserve it, but you're wrong Komaeda! Stick this to your brain! Hope is for everyone including you! If your parents meant the world to you, it's only natural that you were the world to them, and forgiven you, their son! So stop feeling sorry for yourself, and don't lose hope by someone like me! All types of people can be given despair and hope! Talent has nothing to do with it at all! Right Hinata?!"

The teen nodded. "I don't know what my talent is, but even if I was talentless, it won't discourage me from hope."

Haru smiled at him, but then was back to being determined. "I hope you heard me Komaeda, but right now we have to dispatch Hanamura's and Saionji's killer! And that killer is Tsumiki!"

"EH?!" The nurse was completely shocked.

"There's only two people specifically that Hanamura would follow. It was you and me. I made sure of that by testing it out with Kuzuryuu and Nidai. By the sequence of events, the culprit had Hanamura come with her to the live house last night to be instructed of when and how he should kill himself. Due to his despair fever, he didn't go against it, and the fever disrupted his peripheral system so he didn't react to not breathing when Hinata saw him. To make sure Hinata didn't know that he was still alive, a bag was put over Hanamura's face."

"Wait, Hanamura was alive?" Hinata questioned.

"That doesn't matter. The point was that Saionji caught Tsumiki with Hanamura at the live house so killed her."

"But why was Saionji going to the live house?" Nanami asked.

"It was to use the mirror in the house. Saionji and I used it when we were preparing for our dance, and she still didn't know how to tie her obi sash back then." Haru responded.

"That's right!" Sonia agreed. "I found Saionji-san having difficulty dressing herself in her kimono. Surely it was one of the reasons she confined herself in her room. That was when I suggested an idea for her to use the mirror in the live house."

"It's strange though that you know so much of what happened." Komaeda said.

"As a soccer player's captain, it's only natural to be trained to identify strategies. Tsumiki's and my stories contradict each other of who saw who at the live house of who was revealing Saionji's body. The culprit tried to make it look like the murder happened present time, but only Hanamura was killed at the time. You all saw each other fight and Hinata didn't notice Saionji's body until he called the others."

"I see." Hinata said. "So the culprit is only one of you two. Otherwise the culprit couldn't have walked passed the two of you since the live house only had one exit."

"E-excuse me, what are you saying?" The nurse was surprised by the turn of events turned on her.

"Exactly." Haru said and continued, "Only Tsumiki and I were aware of the extent of Hanamura's symptoms and one of us pulled that wall paper. I...I honestly can't defend myself. I am mentally unstable. I hallucinate you guys, have dreams that feel real, have relapses, and act out without understanding why I did it like kissing guys that irritate me."

"What?" Hinata was a bit hurt by that.

Haru ignored him. "But I can tell you this. If I did kill these two, then I killed them in my sleep cuz I have no memory of it whatsoever."

"Ki-Kill in your sleep!" Nidai was surprised.

"She is possessed by a demon! Were you aware of this Tinkering one?!" Tanaka questioned.

"I didn't actually think she'd do it!" The mechanic defended himself.

"Even though, she could've broke down our doors and kill us, and get away with it without even knowing!" Kuzuryuu said.

"So you guys have to continue your trial n' determine which one of us is the killer." Haru told them determinedly. "I won't hate you if you chose me in the end."

"No Haru-chan! I can't believe you two could've done such a thing!" Sonia said.

"Yeah! Tsumiki can't even hurt a fly!" Owari agreed.

"But you will die if you hesitate to accuse one of us." Haru said. "It's only been two weeks hasn't it. But even if there was so little days, I'll gladly die for you."

"Shut up!" Souda shouted. "Don't start talkin' like that freak!"

"Then you feel it too Haru-chan." The teen said softly. "The need to die for hope."

"The need to die for what's right." Haru restated. "Nidai, I'll rely on you to teach ethics to him."

"Don't say that. We still haven't accused you yet." Nidai told her seriously.

"Bu-But she admitted to killing Hanamura for killing her parents!" Tsumiki tried to defend herself. "It's the same for Pekoyama-san!"

"Shut your mouth!" Kuzuryuu shouted.

"I-I'm sorry!" The girl began to cry.

Everyone was pulled between sides of the weak and the honest. The stable and unstable.

"If we want to determine who is the culprit...We will have to understand the crime scene." Nanami said and everyone agreed.

They continued with stating the evidence they did have and Haru's story. Tsumiki continued to justify herself behind her tears making them reluctant to accuse her. They looked for alibis realizing that both had neither that night since everyone was a sleep and the patients weren't aware of much of anything.

And then Komaeda said, "Ah, I don't feel so good."

"Huh? What'dya mean?" Souda questioned.

"I...evewyone's in sixes." He giggled.

"Oi! What's wrong with you now?!" Owari questioned.

"Komaeda..." Haru knew what was going on. "Did you drink the water bottle at my night stand?"

"...I dwid." He slurred and giggled. "I thou..It tasted weird." He giggled again. "I dwank it all. Hehehehe!"

"Why do you speak like this. Did the foul creature Monomi possess you?" Tanaka questioned.

"I'm not fwoul!" The bunny whined.

"He's drugged." Haru told them. "Did anyone witness Komaeda drink the bottle of water at my nightstand?!"

"Me and Nanami did." Hinata responded. "Are you saying that bottle Komaeda drank was drugged? But he didn't act any different after drinking it."

"Not all drugs take effect immediately, and there are those that can be crushed and dissolved into the water being both colorless n' odorless." Haru explained.

"You really are a big expert on medicine aren't you?" Nanami pointed out.

"Just cuz I'm a soccer player doesn't mean I'm just a soccer player."

"I'm sorry." The gamer apologized. "But then why did you have a drugged water bottle in your room."

"Tsumiki gave it to me last night before leavin'. She told me that I should stay hydrated before I slept."

"E-Eh?! I...I didn't do that!" The nurse skillfully lied.

"But why would Haru-chan have a drugged bottle of water?" Nanami questioned.

"Use it on the victims or something?" Owari put in.

"But to do it while killing in your sleep is crazy isn't it?" Kuzuryuu questioned. "Can we really trust her about her relapses?"

"Oi! She told me herself the night before the whole despair fever happened!" Souda defended her.

"But what if she knew it would happen?" Nidai wondered.

"But isn't it strange?" Sonia questioned. "They were both at the pharmacy at night. Haru-chan was to retrieve sleeping pills, and Souda watched her put it back."

"Monobear, did you tell Haru-chan about the Despair fever?" Nanami asked.

"Nope! I wanted to see all of your surprise faces!"

"So Haru-chan couldn't have known if Monobear hasn't said anything...Then that means Haru-chan's and Tsumiki-chan's stories contradict again."

"I..I'm telling you it's not me!" The nurse cried. "Why, ueh, why would I want to drug Haru-chan?"

"It could've been placed there in order to frame Tsumiki." Kuzuryuu said. "That way Haru-chan could pretend to have drank it and be asleep the entire time."

"That is wrong!" Hinata cried out. "The water bottle was full when we found it meaning that Haru-chan didn't drink it at all, and the fight between Tsumiki-san and Haru-chan happened after the morning announcements."

"Hinata-kun left the crime scene for ten minutes after the morning announcements." Nanami said. "When was it that Haru-chan discovered that Hanamura was missing. Who was at the hospital?"

"Don't look at me. I was still sleeping." Kuzuryuu said.

"Haru-chan always went there earlier than the morning announcements." Nidai said.

"Then no one witnessed Haru-chan discovering that he was missing, including Hinata-kun who was discovering the body at the time. Then that meant that Tsumiki-san wasn't in the hospital at the time while Haru-chan could be looking for him. If she was, then they would have both went to the live house together to discover the body. Tsumiki-san even said so herself that she found Haru-chan removing the pillar."

The nurse was shocked by being caught lying. "But...But I was...I was using the restroom."

"Even though. Haru-chan must have searched every room including the restrooms right? Haru-chan?"

"Yes." The soccer player nodded.

"Oh, the timing is wrong." Hinata said. "The real question is that who was hiding in the live house at the time, and who was searching for Hanamura isn't it Nanami-san? Now we have two complete stories contradicting each other."

"Yes Hinata-kun. I believe we are close to the end to figuring who is the culprit. The problem is that whose story is true."

"I wish I knew, but I was pretty much out of it." Owari said. Komaeda was deeply asleep by the drug taking full effect.

"I have a question." Souda said. "It was supposed to be a 'Copy cat' murder after the movie right? But if I remember right, Haru-chan never saw the movie. She's been spending the days with Saionji n' gettin' ready for the dance show. N' the rest was takin' care of Hanamura."

"Clever deduction tinkering one." Tanaka complimented him. "But she still would've watched it during her spare time no?"

"But I don't have a movie ticket." Haru admitted completely forgetting that loophole.

"How are we to be sure?" Sonia questioned.

"We didn't find a movie ticket in her room." Nanami pointed out.

"She still could've thrown it away." Owari pointed out. "I threw mine."

"Monobear," Hinata asked, "Will you tell us whether Haru-chan and Tsumiki-san watched the movie?"

"Hm? Don't you think you bastards asked me too many questions already?!" He got angry but calm again, "If I told you, it would make this trial too easy!"

"So you won't tell us." Nidai said.

"Nope! Guwahahaha!"

Everyone was unsure of what to do. The water bottle only helped at making Komaeda stay quiet, but they could use him right now to figure this out. Who's story was true when no one witnessed both of them?

Haru-chan wanted to believe in them to know which one of them, but Tsumiki's and her story, despite it's contradiction was a mirror version of each other. And they couldn't push a confession out of either when Haru confessed to might have killed them in her sleep, and the fact that Hanamura said 'Yes Haru-chan' in the video.

And then she realized it. "He said 'Yes Haru-chan'." She said.

"What?"

"He said, 'Yes Haru-chan'. Kuzuryuu, Nidai and Hinata, you guys know that he never says 'Yes, Haru-chan' after I give him a command. He just does it. He doesn't say those words, and if I ordered him, why would I make him say those words?"

"You're sleeping side has a sadistic nature?" Souda suggested.

"Souda-san!" Sonia scolded him.

"That may be true. I don't know. Being able to pull everything in your sleep looks impossible. " Haru felt hope filling her heart. "But I know for sure, that I didn't watch that movie, n' there's also something else wrong with Tsumiki's story, why only Hinata?"

"Eeeeeh?"

"You only bought Hinata with you n' didn't call the others. Why is that?"

"Uuuuh...Be...Because I didn't want to disturb the others."

"What are you talking about?! I will always rise to the occasion for a fellow comrade!" Nidai shouted.

"I-I'm sorry!"

"It's not only that, you coincidently send him to the lobby when Hanamura was hanging himself!" Haru felt her blood thumping. "Face it. If you had called the others, then that meant that one of them would've stayed at the crime scene!"

"But...But..."

"Other than that, how could I bring Hanamura out? You were taking care of all of them that night. You would've noticed he was gone and if your first thought this morning was to check the live house, you would've caught me!"

"But even I had times when I would rest! There was no adrenaline to keep me up for the entire twenty four hours! How could I kill my friends?!" She cried and started making herself look like the victim. The others looked reluctant to convict her, and Haru was still an unreliable source.

But she wasn't giving her life away. If anything, if there was still a part of her during her sleep, she wouldn't have sloppily made Hanamura say, "Yes, Haru-chan." This much she could rely on because she knows her hate.

She had the controls in her hands to make her innocent hoping her friends would help her. "There's no point of hiding your true self Tsumiki. I don't know if you were real in the motel room,"

"Oh she was real. Nidai and I let her in." Owari said.

"She told us that she wanted to make sure you were okay." Nidai explained.

"Then that means that you did tell me that you were the culprit."

"No! Don't believe her! She's lying! I was only checking if she was injured! She must've hallucinated me!"

"That isn't what happened in that room. You planned Hanamura's murder, but you didn't plan Saionji's murder. You only murdered Hanamura cuz I had hope n' forgiveness for him!"

"You killed him in your sleep!" Tsumiki's calmness broke.

"How the fuck can I kill him in my sleep the way I did when I never watched the fuckin' movie?!"

"How the fuck am I supposed to know!" Tsumiki cursed back.

"Even if you had resting periods, you still would've noticed Hanamura was gone that night! That's yur fuckin' job as a nurse!"

"What the fuck do you know about being a fucking nurse! You're just a soccer player!"

"I'm not just a fuckin' soccer player, you bitch! Hanamura would've died better instantly!"

"It's a good thing I snapped it then!" Then the nurse gasped.

"And what was that thing about never wanting to hurt your friends?" Haru questioned. "That's a big statement for someone who cares."

"I-I...You tricked me!"

"It's what a soccer player does to get their opponents to lose." She held onto her podium. "I'm feeling light headed. Someone finish this for me." She took a seat wondering why she was so light headed.

Everyone looked to Hinata who nodded. "Last night, the culprit had handed Haru-chan a tampered water bottle in order to drug her to over sleep so that she would have time to frame her. The culprit then took Hanamura to the live house to set everything up, but then Saionji witnessed her, so was killed by the culprit to keep silent. The culprit then put the fake pillar to make the crime scene appear as if it was present time. But what the culprit was unaware of was that Haru-chan didn't drink the water that night, so realized that Hanamura was missing earlier than expected, and witnessed her taking down the fake pillar. The only person Haru-chan saw was Tsumiki!"

After all that, Tsumiki giggled. She began talking about despair which scared everyone but Haru who was seeing blurs. The last thing she heard clearly was her catching the despair fever and how hot she felt. A hotness that Haru faintly remembered being embraced by.

She was having another dream.

"Kirigiri." Haru was sharing a room with her in the future foundation facility. The two had separate beds that they were on, but shared a closet, a bathroom, and a writing desk.

"Yes Haru-chan?" The detective looked away from a book she was reading.

"Did Fujisaki complete the restart life program in the virtual game?" She asked.

"Yes. It was a good thing that you bought the idea up considering the possibilities and faults in the program."

"But Togami's pissed that we delayed the project. It took a lot of persuasion to keep it being funded." The soccer player took her soccer ball and balanced it on her head. "He was too busy that I signed up for being one of the students."

"Are you sure Haru-chan that you want to be hiding this from him?"

"He'd go beserk n' make sure I'm not goin'. But with the preparations set, he can't do anythin'." She smiled. She put the ball back in her hands. "I need to do this Kirigiri. I'm so angry n' resentful against this project. But if I just knew these people n' interacted with them, I could let it all go."

"Don't you think it's a bit extreme Haru-chan?" Kirigiri questioned.

"After everything that happened? I can't jus' talk about it. I have to face it. I can't discriminize who I hate n' who I want to give hope to like Hope's Peak. Not that you're dad had bad intentions."

"I barely knew him, so he might have put his expectations too high on a delicate matter and disappointed many."

"It wasn't entirely your dad's fault. He was as blind as everyone else. And I'm not just going in there to change, I need to forgive...One of the students coming, Hanamura Teruteru, killed my parents. If I just, I don't know, reach out to him, I could find the means to forgive him. I need to be there to truly see him change. Not by just some monitor."

"Like I said before Haru-chan, I am not against your decision. I only hope that everything will go smoothly."

Haru woke up in the middle of the night. "Finally awake, huh, Haru-chan?" She looked to the side to see Komaeda. "Good."

A/N:

Day 8 - New island, Day 9 - Free time, Day 10 - Kuzuryuu's back, Day 11 - Despair fever, Day 12 - Taking care of them, Day 13 - Mioda and Saionji are dead


	5. Now I am the end to your beginning

A/N:

Alive (10): Hinata, Komaeda, Haru, Nanami, Souda, Tanaka, Komaeda, Owari, Nidai (Still human), and Sonia.

Dead (7): Mioda, Twogami, Koizumi, Pekoyama, Saionji, Hanamura and Tsumiki (So in the end, Mioda and Hanamaura just traded places)

Chapter 5: Now I am the end to your beginning

Everyone except Nanami was present at the trial. Monobear was on his throne whilst Monomi was tied up. "Upupupupu! What an interesting turn of events! You bastards know the drill. You must find the killer of Takahashi Haruna!"

A Few Days Ago

They were at the restaurant eating breakfast except for Haru who just entered. Everyone looked at her. The first thing she asked was, "Are you guys real?"

"Yes Haru-chan." Sonia smiled warmly at her. "We're all real."

"To make sure of that." Souda pinched her.

"Ow!"

"Payback!" The teen grinned childishly.

Haru rolled her eyes and then took a deep breath. "Okay, I'm ready. Ask me. Ask me your questions."

"What are you talking about Haru-chan?" Hinata asked.

"Back at the trial, I said some unneeded stuff, so you guys must have questions. I'm ready for any questions I'll ask to my best and accusations that I deserve."

Everyone looked at each other with questions but were hesitant or didn't know how to ask.

"I have one." Kuzuryuu stood. "Is it true? That you knew Pekoyama planned on murdering Koizumi, and you just watched let that happen?"

"Yes and no."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I was havin' a relapse at the time, and I couldn't tell what was real. Before it happened, I hallucinated that Sonia was talking to me."

"You hallucinated me?" Sonia was surprised.

"Yeah. Before that, my hallucinations were only of my therapist and parents."

"Therapist?" Nanami questioned.

"Yeah, I...I've been through a lot of shit before comin' here, but then nothin' that'll make me this insane. I've always went to the doctor, n' been perfectly healthy. But first, Kuzuryuu, I wasn't consciously aware of what was happening. The last thing I do remember was taking a swim and then arriving at the restaurant."

The gangster was unsure of how to take the answer, "But all those things you said at the trial..."

"I know. Everything I said was me talking from my subconscience. I did witness what was happening, but only my subconscience knew about it. Ever since I got on this island, I've been doing things without understandin' why I did it. I thought it could be just uncontrollable muscle reflexes, but even my emotions and speech were out of control. From what I know, it must be a subconscience reason."

"I don't understand." Kuzuryuu said.

"I think she means that she's living in a dream." Nanami responded. "During her moment of witnessing, she was in a trance similar to sleep walking right? You don't remember the dream clearly, but you do recognize some details. In Haru-chan's case, she talks out loud those details without properly thinking about it."

"It still doesn't make sense." The gangster was frustrated.

"I guess when you don't know the much about conscious and subconscious, it's a lost cause." Hinata said.

"Are you calling me an idiot?!"

"N-No."

"But in any case, Kuzuryuu," Haru said, "I'm not justifying myself, but if I were conscious at the time, I would've stopped it immediately."

"But how did you know she was going to kill?" Kuzuryuu questioned.

"...I guess I didn't." Haru responded. "I just knew who did it and who was there, but I don't have x-ray vision to know how it was done, but I have the skills of a strategist, so thinking out the possibilities wasn't hard when it takes strategy to kill."

"So behind your SHSL talent, you're actually a strategist with background about medicine." Komaeda said.

"...Yeah. I think I should lay out my past." She took a deep breath. "To first lay it out, I've been to a Mental asylum."

Everyone was shocked.

"Nonsense! I never heard of this!" Nidai shouted.

"That's cuz my parents or should I say parent hid the fact. The truth behind the Mental asylum was that I attacked one of my teammates."

"But the reason behind that was because she was a gossip, correct?" Sonia pointed out.

"Yeah, but what she was gossipping about was that my dad wasn't my dad, and it's true. I'm not my dad's daughter. I learned about this when I was a kid cuz I overheard my parents arguing about me and said that I wasn't my dad's daughter n' could take whole custody of me. So that's how my family stayed together, and only we knew about it. But since we were famous, the secret could get out, so I've been wary of gossip since which made me violent a lot. My teammate wasn't the only person I attacked so I got sent to a Mental asylum."

"So you're not yur dad's daughter, huh? Why hide it?" Souda asked.

"Yeah, like I want to be called a bastard during a fight. If you knew my mother, you'd understand why I hate my dad not being my dad. I could never see him again whenever she wants."

"How about your real dad?" Owari asked. "You know who he is right?"

"Nah. It was one of my mother's not just one 'one-night stands', n' she didn't know any of their names. My dad isn't an angel. He also has his affairs, but unlike him, my mother puts her sex and work life in front of both of us... So yeah. I'm a real bastard who attacked people and then got sent to a Mental asylum." Haru let it all out which actually felt good.

"...Is the Mental asylum where you were inspired to learn about medicine?" Nanami asked.

The soccer player smiled. "Yeah. The therapist there was really nice, n' helped me through a lot. I actually never wanted to leave. I had my first real friends there."

"First real friends?" Owari found that weird. "Weren't they just a bunch of weirdos in there?"

"No. Mental asylums are more tamed than they show on movies. It's just filled with people with a hard time controlling themselves. Some are violent but for the majority of the time, they're okay. They were nicer than my teammates." She decided to explain her life more. "I was home schooled for my childhood to be the obedient girl before middle school where I tried to be friends with teammates my age for the first time, but then they all rejected me. They rejected me even more when I became captain so for a majority of my childhood, I was alone..." Haru bitterly remembered so many days of being alone. "More questions?"

"Yeah..." Hinata said. "Haru-chan, you said I was responsible for all this. What did you mean by that?"

"I don't know honestly. Just like with witnessing Pekoyama, I just subconsciously said whatever came to mind. I also had dreams where you had long black hair and red eyes after Hanamura killed my parents and Pekoyama killed the guards from capturing him. All of you guys were there with a girl our age."

"A girl?" Nidai was not aware of who.

"Could you possible be talking about 'that person' who Tsumiki was talking about?" Komaeda questioned.

"That person?" Haru didn't understand.

"Right, you fell asleep." The teen pointed out. "Tsumiki was talking about meeting someone, and she looked happy to be in despair. You also called us SHSL Despair."

"Again, I don't know the majority I'm talking about. I don't know if Monobear tampered with my mind so we could go against each other, or these could be memories. But if I understand anything from Hanamura, despair is when you see no future for yourself, but I gave Hanamura a future to look for. He told me all about it. How he was going to rebuild his family restaurant for the sake of his mother. How he was going to make us his first customers. How...How..." She broke to tears.

Sonia quickly hugged her. "We all miss him. We all miss everyone."

"I know." She sobbed. "If it's all true. That we all turned to despair, I'll do whatever it takes to go back or act now to give everyone hope! Especially Hanamura! He turned to despair for a reason and no one was there to stop whoever gave him despair! That's why, just like now, I will forgive him and everyone cuz it's not our fault! It's Monobear! He just keeps pushing us with motives to kill each other! We didn't ask to be on this island or to kill each other!"

"Hello evewyone!" Monomi appeared.

Souda groaned. "You just ruined the moment!"

"I-I wuined the moment? I-I'm sowwy." The bunny apologized. Then she told them about the new island. Everyone didn't want to go since there would just be a new murder. Then Monobear appeared to tell them that there was new clues and possibly boat parts on the island.

There was reluctance but if they wanted to get off the island, they had to go. So they went.

There they found Monomi's house made into a haunted house, Rat boy genius center, a Surprise House, and a rollercoaster.

At the rollercoaster, Monobear said that they would get a prize if they ride it.

"No way! I am not riding it!" Souda was truly against it.

"We all have to get on it if we want to have the prize." Nanami said. "...It could be boat parts."

Souda groaned. Haru held his hand. "Just hold onto me if you're scared."

Suddenly Tanaka hand karate chop their hands away from each other. "Do not dare touch the tinkering one!" Everyone stared at him. "I-I mean, it is best for him to sit next to someone more fit for the duty."

"Like Nidai?" Haru said. She knew Tanaka wanted to, but felt like getting on his bad side.

"...Yes." the breeder reluctantly agreed.

"Then it's settled." Kuzuryuu said. "Nidai, get him on it."

"NO! NO! LET ME DOWN! I BEG YA! LET ME DOOOOOWN!"

They all got on. Haru sat next to Komaeda who gave her a smile. She knew that smile but didn't act differently. The roller coaster started and Haru felt the rush she hadn't felt in a long time.

After the ride, Souda was clinging onto Nidai even when they got off. Tanaka was glaring at him from behind silently muttering curses.

"Tanaka-san truly does care for Souda-san, doesn't he." Sonia told her.

"Bummed that you couldn't snatch him?"

"Not at all actually. The sight of two men falling in love has always been a love of mine to see! I have seen it many times between the knights of my country."

"You still have knights?"

"Yes, but they do not hold swords like the ancient times."

Then Monobear gave them their prize which turned out to be files of the school life of mutual killings in Hope's Peak. There was eleven survivors out of the seventeen students. All eleven students appeared except for one who's picture and name was blacked out.

"Why was one of the students blacked out?" Hinata asked.

"It must have been the traitor!" Monobear answered.

"So you mean to tell us that one of the two traitors was one of the students in the mutual killings." Komaeda said.

"I don't know. It was how I found it."

"How you found it?"

Haru took a look at the file and saw Togami. Everyone wondered if that was the Twogami they knew, but they told them that he wasn't the real Togami.

The ten out of eleven survivors were: Asahina Aoi, Fujisaki Chihiro, Ishimari Kiyotaka, Kirigiri Kyouko, Kuwata Leon, Ludenberg Celestia (Yasuhiro Taeko), Naegi Makoto, Oogami Sakura, Oowada Mondo, and Togami Byakuya.

"Do you have any memories of this, Haru-chan?" Komaeda asked.

"Uhm..." She took a hard look. "No. Nothing." She sighed disappointedly.

"You are a liar." Togami told her.

Then everyone began talking about how they couldn't find anything useful to get off the island. Hinata pointed out that they haven't checked the Surprise House.

"Don't go there." The hallucination told her. "The secret to the surprise house is that the building shifts when the elevator is used as the building has different floor shapes. From everything you've seen, you know that there could be alterations to it, and by strategizing death, it could be used as the ultimate weapon if one knew the secret."

"Let's not go there." Haru said.

"Why not?" Kuzuryuu asked. "We might be able to find a way off this island."

"No. It's another motive. The Surprise House has a secret where-"

"Hey! Don't spoil it!" The bear shouted.

Haru closed her mouth since she didn't want to have a bazooka to her face.

"Suspicious. If Monobear doesn't want her to reveal the secret, then it must be another motive to kill each other." Sonia said.

"The create dare not tell the secret to its den to its prey." Tanaka said.

"But how is the Surprise House a motive?" Owari asked.

"And how do you know about it, Haru-chan?" Hinata asked.

"It's cuz there could be alterations done to it to make sure we kill each other, and an ultimate weapon to do it. How I know that is cuz I also happen to be hallucinating Togami who's tellin' me this."

"Togami-san? You mean..." Sonia thought about Twogami.

"No. The other one who also happens to tell me that we're engaged."

"Wait, you're married?!" Souda was dumbfounded since they all thought they were Freshmen.

Haru blushed. "Again, it might be Monobear or Monomi making me believe!"

"So should we trust you?" Komaeda asked. "Besides, if you truly did know the other Togami in the file, then that must mean that you're the eleventh student!"

"But if I've been in one mutual killings, then why the fuck am I in another one!" Haru found that seriously unfair.

"Maybe it's because you're the mastermind." Komaeda suggested.

"Mastermind! Oi, don't go calling Haru-chan the mastermind!"

"She was injured at the first trial! Why would the mastermind hide among us and control both Monomi and Monobear?"

"Perhaps our Togami's suggestion that it's a big organization in charge of this is true. She planned to skip the first trial so she could oversee her plan. Otherwise how could Haru-chan be so knowledgable about how a murder happened. Don't you find it coincidental of how she's able to be where the murder's took place."

Komaeda made a good point of how Haru-chan was able to stop Hanamura, be where Pekoyama was killing Koizumi, and be where Tsumiki was when she was to do the last part of her plan in framing Haru-chan.

"Shut up! What about you and your good and bad luck?! Maybe Haru-chan has more than one talent!" Souda tried to defend the girl and looked to her to see that she had a thoughtful expression.

"Haru-chan, it can't be true!" Nidai couldn't believe it.

"I can't deny it. I might be like Genocider Syo."

"The serial killer Genocider Syo!" Sonia was half interested and half worried. "You mean to say that you could be having multiple personalities?"

"It makes sense." Haru agreed with Komaeda. "Instead of having relapses, I'm actually changing personalities, and I only remember at the heat of the moment so I might have been changing into someone else at that moment. I did end up acting like our friends and other personalities out of nowhere."

"...But Mastermind or not, the Haru-chan we know now is still our friend." Nanami said. "It is best to trust her more than Monobear, so it must be best to not go to the Surprise House."

Everyone agreed.

"So all of you bastards are cowards after all, huh?" Monobear mocked them. "And I thought I could give you a prize of boat parts."

"I'm not gonna risk my life for a bunch of boat parts." Souda said.

"Kuh!" The bear growled. "Fine then! Go on with your miserable lives!"

After that, everyone went back to the first island to have lunch. Haru barely ate since she was so used to Hanamura's delicious food. Even the others looked unsatisfied except for Owari who ate as much as she could.

Later that day, she went into Souda's bedroom. The male was tinkering with something on the floor. "Hey Haru-chan. What'dya wanted to talk about?"

"It's about our plan to murder everyone on the island. Are you sure that your bombs will set off at the places." Haru asked sitting on the male's bed.

"Should be. I invented them after all." The male told her in a calm voice that sounded frightening to her. "What's wrong? Komaeda makin' ya nervous?"

"It's about what's he's plannin' to do. I do trust him, but then whether he can do it without anyone figuring out about us will be difficult."

"Oi, I'll be the one on the look out. Anyone comin', I'll misdirect them. So no problem or is it cuz you're scared?"

The female glared at him. "I'm not scared!...Okay, maybe a little. I might have a relapse or somethin' when I get Nanami."

"If that happens then all our work wil be for nothing." The teen only sighed not actually caring if it fails. "But if you do somethin' then we can jus' execute ya."

The soccer player sighed and sat down on the floor lying back on the mechanic's back. "You're really different with the despair fever. Does Tanaka know?"

"Nah. He was busy talkin' with Sonia."

"N' you've been building these bombs since you got this fever. Was it jus' to pass time or avoid Tanaka?"

The male snorted. "Pass time? Avoid that sick breeder? It's all the same. I knew that you'd be my ticket out of here."

They stayed like that in silence. Haru helped Souda by bringing things into his room including snacks. On her way back and forth, she was stopped to talk to some people who wondered what she was doing. She simply told them that she was bringing things for Souda since he was really bummed out about the boat parts.

She didn't see Tanaka on the way so figured that Sonia was keeping him company like she asked her to. She didn't want the breeder getting in between her and the mechanic.

Then at dinner, the two had to leave the room. "Ready to put your game face?"

"Wait." The male playfully wave his hand in front of his face. "Now I'm ready. Isn't Sonia-san hot?! Ugh, that weirdo, Hamster-chan! No! Please leave me alone!"

"You're really mocking your old self."

"Tch, I didn't realize how much of a whiner I was." The two exit the room to see Tanaka waiting for them.

"Tanaka? Where's Sonia?" Haru asked.

"The Cat Lady had excused herself to the dining hall. I wish to speak to the Tinkering one alone."

The soccer player looked at the mechanic who glared at the breeder. "What do you want?"

"It is a matter we can only speak between the two of us." Tanaka said glancing at Haru.

"Two of us huh? What about your Dark Lords?"

"What we need to speak of does not concern mere mortals?"

"We don't got anythin' to speak about!

Tanaka grabbed his wrist. "This is of importance!"

Haru spoke up, "I'm hungry, so I'll-"

"No Haru-chan! If his hamsters can listen in, than you can too!"

"They are not mere hamsters you insolent-"

"Insolent what, ya damn freak!"

Tanaka growled, but then let go of Souda's wrist. "I shall leave." He walked away.

Haru frowned, "Was that necessary?"

Souda sighed, "It'd be easier on him. He only knows that Tinkering one."

"What was your relationship like during the Despair?"

"The usual. Occasional sex buddies, but you know how that ends up."

"So you n' Tanaka were together?"

"Ha! Together?...In the Inducing incident, there was no such thing. You got whatever you wanted, but then envied others for what they had, and end up killing them for it or for no reason while denying that you were weak or wrong. And there were others who did nothing about it and have sex with anyone or anything they wanted."

Haru smiled, "Nice speech, but you're still terrible at lying. If the plan goes well, you'll have to face him eventually."

"Or kill him on the spot."

The girl rolled her eyes and the two went to dinner acting like they weren't planning anything suspicious. Haru looked at Komaeda who glanced at her. She smiled. "So what should we do tomorrow?"

She asked and Komaeda took the message, but then shook his head. She scrunched her lips and then nodded. She glanced at Souda who grinned at her.

Her chest felt heavy but then rolled her eyes giving the signal for Komaeda to start talking crazy. While he did about the Surprise house and how their deaths would make hope with the hint of killing them, Souda acted the freaked out person, and Haru was tryin' to playin' the 'nice-give-hope-girl' as usual.

Later that night, she waited out until Nanami came out. Her heart leaped when the gamer did come out.

"Nanami." She called out to her surprising the girl.

Nanami was spooked by her coming out of nowhere. "Haru-chan...Are you having another relapse?"

The girl softly laughed. "No. I need to talk to you about something."

"...Okay. What is it?"

"Not here. Let's go to Monomi's house."

"Why Monomi's house?"

Haru held her hand intertwining their fingers. "You know why."

"...Haru-chan."

The next day, Komaeda hadn't been around making everyone suspicious. Souda then made up a plan to capture him by luring him into the restaurant. People questioned of why not do the same as before of Nidai and him knocking him out and tying him up. The mechanic reasoned that they weren't aware of where Komaeda was, so the easiest way is for some of them to wait outside to call him in without looking suspicious, and the executive team in the restaurant.

Owari and Nidai were the executive team, so the others tried to go on with their lives until they saw Komaeda. Each of them having an island to spend time at. Haru and Nanami had the second island, Tanaka and Sonia had the third island, and Hinata and Kuzuryuu had the fourth island. Souda was to stay at the first island.

As they went to their stations, hours passed by, and they couldn't find him.

And then Hinata and Kuzuryuu ended up finding Komaeda walking towards the bridge back to the first island. They convinced the male to go to the restaurant for a meeting.

At the restaurant lobby, Nidai and Owari held him down to the ground.

"Gotcha!" Owari exclaimed.

"Um, what are you doing?" Komaeda questioned.

"We're locking you back up! This is what it is!" Nidai exclaimed.

The white hair male laughed lightly. "You're tying me up again?"

"Re-resistance is futile!" Souda shouted.

"I'm not resisting..." Komaeda was completely calm that it confused everyone, except Nanami and Haru, there.

And then there was an explosion that had Souda fly out. Tanaka quickly came to his aid to see that his tinkering one only suffered a few injuries.

Komaeda laughed evily claiming that this was the end as he was going to destroy Jabberwock island by using the bombs he obtained and hidden unless they were able to identify the traitors.

Everyone didn't believe he could obtain such bombs, but knew doubting him might mean dying.

"That Komaeda." Owari growled. "Wait...what's that weird smell?" The girl said but no one could smell what she was smelling, and thought she was just smelling the burn of the explosion.

They then decided to rest after the blow from the explosion.

The next morning, everyone went to the restaurant wondering what to do. Komaeda was present to give them a hint that the bombs were located somewhere they haven't been to yet. They all left the place to think of where it was. No one knew of the password to the ruins so it couldn't have been used but it was the only place.

Then Kuzuryuu spoke up, "No. There's one more place. Remember, we haven't been there either? The-what do you call it, that-castle thing in the amusement park."

"Are you perhaps referring to the Mouse Castle?" Tanaka questioned.

"Yeah! That one!"

They all agreed to go but realized that Nanami and Haru wasn't with them. Sonia and Hinata went to check their rooms to find that both of them were not answering.

"Oh dear! Haru-chan is not in her room!" Sonia cried out.

"Neither is Nanami-san! Do you think..."

"No!" Sonia immediately turned down the thought. "Haru-chan and Nanami-san couldn't have been overpowered by Komaeda-san! There must be another explanation!"

No one could think of a plausible one, so decided to find them on the way to the Mouse castle where they found the entrance broken and opened for them.

Souda was having second thoughts of going in. "A-Are you sure it's not a trap?! One step and boom!"

"Will you give it fucking rest?" Kuzuryuu complained.

Everyone walked towards it. Tanaka looked at Souda who slowly followed. He extended a hand towards him. Souda stared at him bewilderedly. "Is it not customary to lend a hand to those who are in fear?" The breeder questioned.

"I'm not afraid!" He shouted immaturely and tried to march in like a man, but then fell back to see a horrifying sight.

Haru was suspended from the air by her wrist being tied by the ropes of the spears that were tied to the columns. Her head was covered with blood. Her eyes were closed but cuts were made to the lids that had her face look like she had cried blood. Neck has been slit and abdomen has been stabbed. She wore a sign that had her blood be written traitor on it.

Sonia nearly fainted by the sight of her first friend killed and displayed in such a matter. She reached out to Tanaka to hold her as she cried.

The bell rang and the monitor went on. "A body has been discovered! After a brief period of investigation, the school trial will begin!"

Everyone was too shocked to do anything. Worse of all, they still haven't found Nanami.

"It was Komeada." Owari said. "Once I see him, I'm gonna kill him!"

"No." Hinata said. "I need you guys to investigate. I'm going to find Nanami!" He ran out and searched desperately through the other islands. He just kept trying even when his sides hurt and he was parched.

But then instead of finding Nanami, he found Komaeda at the burned restaurant lobby.

"Hey Hinata-kun!" The male cheerfully greeted.

"Komaeda?" Hinata socked him at the face, and then grabbed him by his collar. "Where is she?!"

Komaeda lightly laughed. "I don't know who you are talking about?"

"Shut up! You know who exactly I'm talking about! Where's Nanami?!"

"Oh her. I don't know. Anyway, can you tell me who's body everyone found." Komaeda asked with a smile.

"You mean you don't know?" Hinata's hand shook as his tears uncontrollably fell. "YOU KILLED HARU-CHAN YOU BASTARD!"

"Haru-chan? My, I was actually going to kill myself."

"What?" Hinata let him go.

"That was my plan." Komaeda got up. "I was going to fool all of you into thinking I had bombs, but truly I only had two while the rest was firecrackers I found at the market. After you guys realize it was a trick, you'd all discover my dead body at the mouse castle."

"Sto..Stop joking around! It was Haru-chan who was murdered there! She had a sign calling her a traitor on her!"

"So that's where her dead body is. Well then, shouldn't you go back to the crime scene. Everyone would need as much help as they can to solve this trial now that Haru-chan isn't there to solve the killer for us now..."

Hinata saw a defeated look on Komaeda's face, but then reluctantly agreed with him. He went back to the crime scene to get evidence.

There, he had to tell them that he couldn't find her anywhere. He gathered evidence with everyone.

In the file, there was no time of death just like the Tsumiki case. There was a spear on the floor with blood covered on it which must've been the weapon used to kill her. They noticed something etched out at the bottom of her that was suppose to be a password for the future.

The odd thing was that there wasn't much blood splattered on the floor, so they decided to search the place. Everyone went in pairs for an island to search for more evidence and where Nanami could be.

When Monobear announced that the school trial was to begin, everyone went to Monobear rock including Komaeda who everyone stepped away from and whispered to each other or thought to themselves.

The escalator then showed up to take them to the elevator leading them to the trial room.

"Wait, what about Nanami?" Hinata asked. "We can't have a trial without her!"

Monobear appeared. "Sorry, but you have to!"

"But what if Komaeda killed her to, and we were to discover her later?" Sonia questioned. "Does that mean for another trial?"

"Who knows?" It responded.

"Oi, you cheap toy! Don't go making things up as you go!" Kuzuryuu shouted.

"I'm not making it up. In fact, even I don't know where she is."

Everyone was shocked. They didn't understand what that meant. They questioned about what it did mean, but the bear sent them to the trial room without answers. They were to only pay attention to Haru's death.

Once everyone was in place for the trial, it began.

"There is without a doubt that it was Komaeda who killed Haru-chan!" Sonia announced. "Declare yourself the murderer at once!"

"She's really upset by this." Kuzuryuu commented.

"Who wouldn't be?!" Owari questioned. "Let's just pummel him until he confessed!"

"That wouldn't be what Haru-chan want." Nidai said. "She'd want this to be done through proof and justice!"

"Then let's start the trial." Komaeda said. "As usual, we should start with how she was murdered."

Souda responded, "She had a lot of cuts and wounds that she might have either bled to death or had an impact to the head. It's strange that Monobear doesn't put what was the cause of death huh?"

"That's right." Hinata agreed. "The file only told us what her injuries were but not her cause of death. Why is that Monobear?"

"Eh? You're questioning me of why I didn't put it on the file. That's for me to know and for you to figure yourself out you bastards." It responded.

"It also seems that the creature, Monomi, is not present with you." Tanaka pointed out.

"I got sick of her, so I got rid of her! She was my only sister, but you know how siblings are!"

"Run out of spares huh." Souda said. "But it's strange that she's gone around the same time that Haru-chan is killed, and Monomi and Nanami is not here."

"Are you suspecting me? You bastards have a lot of guts accusing me!"

"But Souda-san is right." Komaeda agreed. "Unless Nanami-san has done something against you, it would make sense, but that is most unlikely. So why is it, that the cause of death for Haru-chan isn't on the file. Bleeding to death and an impact to the head couldn't have been able to identify the killer, or is it perhaps that the same as Nanami-san, you don't know how she was murdered which means you don't know who murdered her."

"Kuh!...You got me. I don't know." The bear confessed.

"But how are we suppose to undisguise the murderer when even you don't know?" Sonia questioned.

"I guess, you have to get the killer to confess then!" Monobear laughed.

Everyone had a moment of silence, but a majority was staring at Komaeda who held a smile.

"Then moving aside the cause of her death," Nidai started. "We also don't know the time of her death."

"We didn't see Nanami and Haru-chan during the explosion right?" Kuzuryuu pointed out. "Then it must've happened at the second island when we separated!"

"But we found Komaeda at the fourth island." Hinata pointed out.

"He could've snuck to the fourth island without us looking. It is a big place we were searching." The gangster explained.

"No. That's wrong." Hinata said. "The weapon used to kill Haru-chan was the spear, and when we were there, the mouse castle was still closed."

The gangster forgot that. "Then you mean it wasn't yesterday?"

"No. It must mean it happened after the explosion to this morning around ten. So Komaeda had between ten at night to ten in the morning to do the crime." Hinata concluded at the time of death.

"Then that means that he blew up the mouse entrance, took the spear and killed Haru-chan and possibly Nanami-san that night? But that still doesn't make sense." Sonia said. "Neither Haru-chan or Nanami-san came back that night, and they would've heard the explosion and ask if we were okay like how Tanaka and I heard the explosion and came immediately. There should be no reason that they stayed at the island without making sure we were okay."

"There could be the possibility that Haru-chan killed Nanami-san." Komaeda pointed out.

"What?!" Sonia was in disbelief.

"She might have been the mastermind correct. She might have had another relapse or switched personality where she could've killed Nanami-san, and the oen who killed her did it out of self defense. Perhaps Nanami killed her, and was now hiding purposefully."

"You got that wrong!" Hinata exclaimed. "She couldn't have killed Haru-chan and put her in the mouse castle without blowing it up, but then the only one with bombs was you."

"Oh, you're right, but don't you remember Monobear's warning. We have two traitors. Who's to say that both Haru-chan and Nanami-san were the traitors."

"But why would one traitor kill the other?" Owari questioned. "Aren't they suppose to be helping each other?"

"No." Kuzuryuu responded. "It's only natural that one would betray the other. It's the same for Tsumiki right? We thought we could trust her until we saw her real side."

"But for Nanami-san to do that to Haru-chan's body? It's too much!" Sonia cried out.

"Wait, if Nanami is the killer, then should she be here?!" Souda pointed out. "Oi, bear! You can't leave her out of this without defending herself!"

"But I really can't find her. It's like she never existed." Monobear defended himself.

"Never existed?!" Hinata couldn't believe that.

"Oh poor Nanami-san. If I knew where she was, I would, but she's nowhere to be found at all. If I had punished her, I would tell you bastards, but I'm an honest bear."

Everyone was too shocked to say something, so Komaeda naturally let the conversation flow.

"Then that means Nanami-san couldn't have been the killer, and she has disappeared mysteriously. Then we have to exclude her from the discussion or else this trial will go nowhere." He said. "Besides the murder weapon and timing, has anyone else found anything interesting."

Everyone thought of what to say, but everyone couldn't think of anything.

"Is that so?" Komaeda said disappointedly, and sighed as well. "Are you guys truly the students of hope? You all believe it's me then why don't you prove it?"

"I got a question though." Souda spoke up. "About how Monobear's unable to see who the killer was or where's Nanami. You have cameras to see everythin'. Don't they work anymore or somethin'."

The bear growled. "Of course they work! They always work!"

"I was just asking a question! But how were you not able to know then?" Souda asked cowardly.

"...Kuh, you bastards and you're questions. I guess I have no choice or else it'll just be boring. It turns out that my stupid little sister Monomi unactivated my cameras at the second, first and fourth island!"

"Huh? They're unactivated." Hinata was surprised.

"And beyond prepared! That's why she's not here! I made sure that this wouldn't happen again!" Monobear confessed. "Whew! It's good getting that out in the air. There! That's why I don't know so you guys have to figure it out yourself!"

"If the first, second and fourth cameras were unactivated, then that means that the murder must've occured during those islands!" Sonia declared.

"The culprit must've been a most manipulative foul demon to be able to control the creature at its will. A most fearsome demon indeed!" Tanaka announced. "To do such an evil deed in the dark without the eye of machines recording such!"

"We're talking about who murdered Haru-chan!" Sonia cried out bursting into tears. "Haru-chan was a victim to Monobear's doing and to be killed in such a mocking way, I can never forgive! I can truly never forgive this killer!"

"My apologies." Tanaka apologized feeling ashamed.

"Way to go." Kuzuryuu said sarcastically. "Back to the crime scene, Sonia was right. Haru-chan wouldn't have ignored the explosion. Do you think Komaeda tied her up somewhere?"

"Komaeda taking down Haru-chan?" Owari questioned. "I fought her, and there's no way a zero like Komaeda could've tied her up."

"He could've used an anesthetic like Pekoyama right?" Souda questioned.

"That could explain why Haru-chan didn't come that night." Sonia was collecting herself. "But there's no sign of bruises of being tied up at the ankles or the arms if she was." She pointed out. "And how else would Komaeda have carried her to the fourth island?"

"It must've been using the kart from the market." Hinata said. "There was traces of blood on the kart, so the murder occurred at the second island!"

"But where at the second island?" Souda questioned. "There was no blood stains anywhere."

"They must've washed away the blood. They had hours to clean up their mess. Which also explains why we can't find blood stains in the mouse castle."

"Or Haru-chan stopped bleeding." Komaeda said. "As Tsumiki said, the body stops bleeding when the heart stops pumping, but nice try Hinata-kun."

"Shut up will you!" Souda shouted, and Komaeda was quiet.

"Haru-chan was brought to the mouse castle and made to look that way to call her the traitor." Kuzuryuu said. "The only person who could've known she was a traitor was the other traitor. It's you isn't it?!" He accused Komaeda.

The teen didn't say anything.

"Answer me!"

"Oh, trash like me can talk now. Well then, I wouldn't say I'm the traitor, but why would the other traitor kill the other one. If Haru-chan was knocked out, then it couldn't have been for self-defense as Nanami-san seems to be deleted. Even if the killer knew that they were both the traitors, why would both go to second island together."

"For the ruins!" Hinata responded.

"The ruins?" Owari questioned. "Shouldn't you have a password for that?"

"They must have known by the the mouse castle where the password has been etched. You blew up the entrance Komaeda, so you must've known the password, and entered it. That must be where you hid Nanami!"

"Back to her again." Komaeda gave a lopsided smile. "You must really have a thing for her, but then again, this is a trial for Haru-chan. Do you care at all for Haru-chan, Hinata-kun?"

"Of course I do!"

"Then be quiet about Nanami-san. You'll discover soon enough. Besides, should you be talking?"

"Wha-What do you mean?"

"If I were at the ruins, I learned something very interesting. It turns out that you aren't a student of hope after all."

"What?!"

"Yup! You're just a reserved student! A rich kid who got in, not through talent, but money. So the truth behind your talent is that you don't have one! Isn't that a plot twist?!"

"A reserve student eh." Nidai said. "Then that means he couldn't be the traitor!"

"So Hinata-san couldn't be the killer." Sonia said.

"You were suspecting me?!" Hinata was shocked.

"We didn't know your talent, but now that we know you're talentless, it's okay!" Souda gave a thumbs up. Hinata wasn't very enthusiastic about that answer.

"That should be it right?" Kuzuryuu asked. "We got it that Haru was killed around the time of the explosion at the second island near the ruins and then brought to the fourth island where she was displayed. All at the time when Komaeda was nowhere to be found!"

The lucky person just grinned at them. "Is that it? All because I was nowhere to be found and set of the explosions that I was in charge. And here, I thought you'd notice."

"What are you blabbering about now?" Owari questioned.

"You noticed it didn't you Owari-san. The smell after the explosion. Didn't you and Nidai found something strange about it?"

"...Yeah. It smelled weird. It wasn't just smoke and stuff, but what do I know about bombs going off."

"Do you really think I could find a bomb in a place like this? I'm not mentally adept to create such bombs."

"How can we take your word on that? You could just be lying to us!" Souda shouted.

Komaeda laughed creepily to that. "If only you had Tsumiki, you'd realize that the weapon you think was used was only covered in blood."

"Only covered in blood?" Sonia was confused.

"You guys were so sure that I was the culprit that you didn't check each other's rooms." He laughed lightly. "Instead you checked mine which had nothing that was useful evidence."

"What are you talking about? None of us could've murdered Haru-chan!" Hinata said.

"Except the one who stayed at the first island that was connected by the other bridges so no one would suspect the culprit to go to a different island. The one who used a lighter to set off the bomb behind him. The very person who made the plan to separate in the first place."

Everyone then realized with a gasp. "Souda-san?" Sonia was the one to say the name.

"You speak lies!" Tanaka shouted in rage.

"Do I? Then what about this?" Komaeda showed the bloody wrench. "I found this at Souda's room. Here, you can accuse me of framing him, but then if you think about the timing, Souda set the plan that morning and I couldn't have entered his room. Unless I broke the lock of course, but if you checked it yourselves, you'd realize it's in top condition. And if you remember that day of the party, Souda never left without his trusty wrench since it kept him calm. So entering his room or not, I couldn't have gotten his wrench in the first place. If you check his pockets now, he doesn't have it with him, do you Souda-san?"

"...Yeah, I don't."

"See. And Owari and Nidai, Souda wasn't with you at the restaurant was he?" Komaeda questioned.

"He was! For the most part..." Owari responded.

"It can't be denied. Souda left for the restroom and didn't come back for a while." Nidai added.

"And now that I think of it, I thought I smelled that strange smell earlier, but got distracted by food and training with Nidai." Owari said.

"That is wrong!" Tanaka said. "Even if the tinkering one had done it, he was too injured to have set up the kicking demon's body in such a way!"

"That's because I did it." Komaeda said.

"Wait!" Sonia thought this was insane. "You mean after Souda-san killed Haru-chan, you cleaned up after his mess, and put her there?!"

"Yup!"

"I told you that the Tinkering one couldn't have done it!" Tanaka declared. "For what reason could he have killed her?!"

"You mean the motive?..." Komaeda thought of what to say as he stared at Souda who shrugged his shoulders. "...That's for you to ask him."

"Then it can't be true!" Tanaka faced Souda. "In the very depths of hell, there could never be a reason for you to do it!"

"Why are you defendin' me?" Souda asked. "It's obvious isn't it? Only I'm able to make bombs even with the crappiest things away."

"Even so, why are you so relaxed about this Souda-san?!" Hinata questioned. "Haru-chan was your friend!"

"Cuz I figured why not? She begged me to kill her. Why deny her?" Souda responded being completely relaxed. "What? Did you expect me to overreact like usual? I got over that years ago."

"No!" Tanaka ran over to him holding his shoulders. "The crazy one must've cursed you or have a demon possess you! He hypnotized you to not deny that you are not the culprit when you are innocent!"

Souda snorted. "I'm not possess'd Hamster-chan. Geeze, I forgot how much of a dork you were before the incident."

"Before..." Tanaka's hold on the mechanic's shoulders loosened.

"Yeah, that whole shit's real. The whole rebellion y'know." Souda said this as if it was just some stunt at a rock concert.

"Then you mean that school of mutual killings was real?" Kuzuryuu asked.

"Yup! And I created most of the executions to kill their friends! If I built the executions on this island, it would've been better!"

"Upupupupupu! If that's true, then I would've given you back your memories a long time ago! But now that you're not denying, let's move onto the voting time!" Monobear announced.

"Wait!" Tanaka pleaded. "This is the work of the bear isn't it?! He did something to you like he did to the kicking demon!"

"Let it go already. I killed her. End of story." Souda told him getting tired of him trying to object for him.

"Then let's vote!"

Everyone hesitate to vote but then did. The machine rolled and ended up on Souda who was in fact the murderer.

"Yahoo! You're correct! Souda Kazuichi is the murderer!"

"Be quiet you monstrosity!" Tanaka shouted. "I won't believe this! I will never believe this! You are all wrong! You said it so yourself that you don't know who the murderer was!"

"But then everyone including Souda-kun voted for him. Except for you Tanaka-kun. You voted for Komaeda. It's strange to be defending someone who doesn't even like you."

"It's not like that! Even-"

"Shut up already. Damn, just give it up." Souda told him. "The reason I killed Haru-chan was cuz Monobear's virus in her brain would've had her head explode."

"Virus?" Sonia did not know about this.

"You'd get the details lat'r. And Nanami is alive. Well, that's it for me." The mechanic told them.

"Was everything for naught?" Tanaka questioned. Souda looked up at him to see that tears fell down. "Is this the genuine you who have not cared for us just like the last one?"

"You still got your other friends."

"Don't make yourself expendable! You're beyond more than that!"

"Beyond more huh...You usually jus' say that in bed."

"What?"

"Nothin'! Let's get the execution on the road!"

"Wait! Kazuichi, I-"

Monobear hit the button having Souda grabbed out of the room before Tanaka could finish his words.

**DREAM DREAM ROCKET COASTER**

Souda was strapped to a roller coaster that blasted of through the twirls and such faster and faster again and again until it was broken off and flew out. It looked like it was going to reach out to the sky just like Tsumiki but then Monobear had a sign up saying, "Uh oh!" and then it exploded before it reached the sky.

Komaeda watched with a reminder of how it happened.

That morning, after Souda made the plan, he met Haru and Nanami as promised at the second island to be a watch out as they entered the ruins together. After a while, Haru came out.

He remembered what they talked about.

"What exactly did you need Nanami to do?"

"I needed her to enter the level zero room where only she is able to enter. There, she is able to find pieces of everyone like a puzzle game and bring them back to life." She explained.

"...Haru-chan, when you told me that I should forgive myself already, you sounded like you sympathized with me. Why is that?"

"Hm? Why did I? I guess it's because I don't feel like I can ever be forgiven. It's most likely that my parents are dead, and Hanamura is the one who killed him. I was so angry, and blamed myself more than him because what if I didn't tell them I loved them. I left out of anger, and they probably thought at their last moment that I hated them. That I might have made their suffering worse so they didn't find peace." She looked up at the sky. "I sound really self-centered don't I?"

"...A bit."

"I did have a moment on this island where I was better off dying so I could find repentance, but it'd be like a waste to my parents who raised me. So I figured that I could live with myself if I just forgave and let go of my anger. Stop feeling sorry for myself and stop being the victim. I forgave Hanamura like you should accept your talent and find a way to make it better for all of us."

"Your goal sound more easier since you can control the situation." Komaeda pointed out.

"Gawd, stop with the excuses and do something about it! Have scientists figure you out or somethin'! Plus your luck bough you here, and here, you were able to meet Hinata. I know that you're very fond of him." The soccer player grinned at him.

And then she fell to her knees holding her head. "Fuck! Where's Souda?!"

"He's not here." Komaeda kneeled next to her.

"FUCK!" She looked around desperately and then back at the teen. "Komaeda, I'm sorry, but please. Kill me!" She begged. "If you don't, I'll die for real!"

The male was at a moment of hesitance, but then stood and took out a knife from his pocket that he held for the rise moment. He grasped the handle firmly.

"Please Komaeda! It's okay! I'll be back!" Haru told him, but the male wasn't moving.

In the end, Souda killed her behind by his wrench. "Wondered if you would kill her in my place, n' here I find you too scared to kill her or wanted to kill her for real. Not my business anyway."

"You wanted to see if I was a real killer?" Komaeda stared at the lifeless soccer player.

"Can't help but be curious to how sadistic you truly are. But thinkin' 'bout it now, I couldn't tell whether you cared enough to kill her physically or let her die cuz either yur a sadistic bastard or a coward."

"...I'm a coward." Komaeda said.

"Hm?"

"I'm a coward." The male held himself. "It's one thing for it to be accidental but to do it for real, even if she was coming back, I couldn't. I truly am a coward."

"...Whatever. Jus' do the damn job n' all is forgiven." Souda told him and turned to leave.

"You're just going to leave her like this?" Komaeda asked.

"Not my problem until the trial." He threw the wrench to the side. "Anyway, she's right. If she's willing to hang around a bunch of killers like us, she must be really desperate to find the good in us... That Hanamura bastard is the luckiest bastard from what I can see. Forgiveness? Do people like us deserve that?" Then Souda left.

There is hope and despair in the world. A world without a future and a world with a future. Everyone focuses on the ultimatum of the world and the good one would look so far away. It's just that they can't see the bridge to get there.

If one has fallen into despair, and hurt people, people learn that death is the ultimatum of punishment, but if people could hear the ghost that aren't angry, they would hear the words of forgiveness.

Why is it only that those who can't forgive be heard?

Haru was at the beach with Hanamura who was his despair self. "Hanamura..."

The cook faced her. "Haru-chan? You're here."

"I am."

"Then why do you stand so far from me."

"Because I don't know if you're safe to be near now that you remember who you are."

"Right...So you don't forgive me?"

"Only if I know that you have changed. That you want to help people now instead of hurting them."

"...How would you know that I am telling the truth?"

"I think there was a time when Nanami said that truth isn't completely without doubt, so I will forever doubt that you won't fall to despair again, but trust you enough to not stab me in the back when I come forward." Haru walked towards him. "Let's make your mother happy together, and rebuild the world with your restaurant in her name."

She embraced the cook. "You are not alone."

Hanamura cried. "I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!"

"It's alright." She cooed. "I forgive you."

The bridge of love, hate, courage, cowardice, forgiveness, resentment, sorrow and happiness in between the worlds of despair and hope is a bridge that anyone could pass if they are honest enough to change.

And so, Haru woke up virus free after her friends had pressed the restart button with the help of Naegi being the eigth student to press it.

The world she woke up to was a shattered mirror, but with the people to put back the piece together again.

After a few years of rebuilding the world, she stood under an altar in a beautiful wedding dress with Togami standing in front of her, and their friends standing with her as she finally said those fateful words, "I do."

Haru didn't actually wanted to get married, but everyone else wanted them to tie the rope already so help them make it happen.

Religion almost obsolete from the world, Naegi played the priest. Hanamura made the food which Haru ate without any doubt in him to try to poison her. Ibuki and Leon was their band. And the one to catch the bouquet was Komaeda who blushed. All the girls were happy for him, as the male to catch the bride's garter was surprisingly Naegi.

The two lucksters danced together just for fun. Hinata was talking with an android form of Nanami who commented of how good the two looked together making the untalented one stare with envy and then get mad when the program teased him about it.

Everyone else was having fun.

"This is insane." Togami said as he was sitting down after being forced to dance.

"What? That the other you still looks like you?" Haru watched Twogami being the drums for Ibuki.

"No and yes. What I was talking about is finally being married." The blond held her wedded hand. "We still have so much work to do."

The girl snorted. "The world will never cease from giving us work, but it isn't bad to have fun once in a while. It felt like forever seeing everyone."

"It was. But I wonder why all the females in this room are happier than the males."

"That's cuz they know."

"Know what?"

"Baka-kuya," She placed his hands on her stomach. "I'm pregnant."

The End.


End file.
